Rise of the Great Dog Demon
by Q42
Summary: Centuries before the birth of Inuyasha, a legend began. Herein begins the tale of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's famous ancestor, a great and benevolent being still known as the Great Dog Demon. Now with Bonus Material in every chapter!
1. The Prophecy

Centuries before the birth of Inuyasha, a legend began. Herein begins the tale of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's famous ancestor, a great and benevolent being still known as the Great Dog-Demon.

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Tales of the Great Dog-Demon

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First Cycle:

Rise of the Great Dog-Demon

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Chapter I:

The Prophecy

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Sounga watched as two of his undead soldiers shoved the girl into the throne room. Even in the filthy, threadbare rags they had found her in, she was nonetheless attractive; her shoulder-length raven hair still drew the Great Demon's attention despite being matted with dirt from farm labor and the long trek here to his citadel.

_For a blind woman_, he thought to himself, _she certainly is easy on the eyes_. It was hard to believe that the rumors he'd been hearing about her could be true. Could such a simple, harmless creature really be the harbinger of a Great Demon's demise?

After a few moments, the girl sat up, drumming her fingers on the wood floor - a technique, Sounga knew, that served as a form of echolocation, allowing the girl to sense her surroundings through sound rather than sight. As she turned her head, Sounga noticed that the pupils of her emerald-green eyes were obscured by a pearlescent film, like cataracts.

"Hello?" she called, "Is anyone here?"

"Don't worry, my dear. For the time being, you are safe." Sounga rose from his throne. At well over six feet tall in his human form, he was an imposing figure to most. His flesh was a pale shade of red, with blue cuneiform marking on his cheeks. From his forehead rose two long, curved horns which gave him an almost satanic appearance, were one familiar with Western religion. This effect was only enhanced by his long, high-cheekboned face and the jet-black goatee, mustache and braided ponytail he affected. He wore a long, black cloak over his armor, a suit of black metal plates with long, sharpened red spikes protruding from them. In the center of his breastplate was a large, blue crystal. At his waist was sheathed a long, curved sword with another crystal ball mounted in the pommel.

Sounga walked over toward the blind young woman. "There's no need to worry, Miss ..."

"S-saeko," the girl finished for him, and turned her face towards his voice. Had he posessed the ability to care about others, Sounga might have felt pity for her. As it was, her sightless gaze only served to agitate him, and it was all he could do to keep talking in a calm, reassuring voice. "Thank you, Miss Saeko," he said. "It is nice to meet you at last."

"Who are you? Why was I brought here? Where are Mama and Papa?"

"Your family is fine. I have no need for their presence, so I left them to tend their meager estate in peace. You, on the other hand, may be of some use to me, if what I have heard is true."

"What do you mean? What use could I be? Even my little brother says I can't do anything right!"

"I'm not talking about chores or menial labor, Miss Saeko," Sounga said, bending down until their faces were only an inch or so apart.

"I am speaking of your dreams."

Saeko's brow furrowed in confusion. "My dreams?" she said hesitantly. "What about them?"

"It is common knowledge in your village that, whenever danger is near - be it bandits, demons or earthquakes - you have premonitions of it at least a day in advance. They say that your intuition has become the guide by which they plant their crops, and that you have never erred in your predictions."

"That's just a silly game my father started this one time when I dreamed of a flood. I'm not really a priestess or a seer." Saeko bowed her head, tears trickling down her face. "I'm ... not much of anything, really."

Finally, Sounga decided that enough was enough. Whether it was an act to make him dismiss her, or a genuine lack of confidence, the girl's prattling was getting tiresome. He grabbed Saeko's shoulders and pulled her to her feet, glaring at her. "They said that you have dreamed of me ... of my future. You will tell me what you have seen!"

Saeko's blind eyes darted aimlessly around, her voice taking on an edge of panic. "I ... I don't know anything! Everyone says I'm stupid! I don't even know who you are!"

"I AM THE GREAT DEMON SOUNGA, GOD OF DARKNESS AND RULER OF THE EASTERN ISLANDS! YOU WILL TELL ME WHAT YOU SAW, OR I WILL HAVE YOUR WORTHLESS, SIGHTLESS HEAD!"

Saeko fell backward, eyes wide, an expression of sheer terror on her young, innocent face. "P-please! I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me!"

"ANSWER MY QUESTION! WHAT IS IN MY FUTURE?"

"I ... I saw a man. He was tall, and he had long hair. He carried two swords. There was a bright, white light shining out of him, like he was made of it. He was so beautiful!" Saeko's face lit up just talking about this mystery character; Sounga, who had always abhorred sunlight, felt sick just imagining such a being. "He came and he fought you, and then..." Saeko hesitated for a moment. "He stabbed you with his swords, and you disappeared."

Sounga stood frozen in place, slack-jawed, his crimson eyes wide with shock. "He ... this man ... he _killed _me!"

"I'm not sure he was really a man. He felt like he was so much more; he was as bright as you are dark, and he kept changing into a dog in my dream."

"So he must be some sort of demon, then. A demon who can take the form of animals, or at least the form of a dog." Sounga leaned down toward Saeko. "What else do you know about this ... dog-demon?"

Saeko shook her head back and forth. "I ... I don't remember! It was weeks ago!"

"THINK! WHAT IS HIS NAME? WHERE DOES HE COME FROM?"

The girl merely kept shaking her head, trembling in fear. "I don't remember! I just don't remember!"

Sounga gave a snarl of rage and frustration. Quick as a flash, he unsheathed his sword and brought it to within an inch of the runt's nose. "WHAT IS HIS NAME, WENCH!"

"His ... His name is Hiromitsu! Hiromitsu! Oh, Gods help me--"

"I _AM_ A GOD!" roared Sounga, finally fed up with the brat's incessant whining, and lopped her head from her shoulders without even thinking about it. Saeko's head flew into the air, spinning from the force of the blow, and landed on its severed neck only inches from where her body fell, her mouth still open in a silent plea for mercy.

His temper calmed for the time being, Sounga gave a huff and returned to his throne, replacing his bloodied sword in its sheath as he went. "Onigumo!" he called. After a moment, a tall, broad-shouldered warrior stepped into the throne room and knelt before Sounga.

Onigumo was Sounga's chief enforcer. Though obviously undead - as announced by his bruised-looking, white-and-purple skin - the man had always had a talent for murder and mayhem, and was the only human being who had willingly allowed himself to be killed and resurrected by Sounga, with his soul still housed within his undead body in a grotesque, unnatural form of immortality. Clad in heavy black armor and carrying a black iron scimitar, his very appearance was usually enough to reduce his opponents to trembling wrecks. And, for those few who were suicidal enough to take him on, his prowess in battle was enough to reduce them to steaming piles of flesh. For Sounga's purposes, the man was perfect; as long as he kept the human population in fear and slew any demons foolish enough not to pledge fealty to Sounga, the Great Demon would keep Onigumo in superhuman condition, never tiring, instantly healing, and able to enjoy all the carnal delights his corrupted flesh craved.

Sounga leaned back on the throne, resting his cheek in his hand as he contemplated the best course of action. To Onigumo he said, "It has come to my attention that there is a demon living in my territory who seeks to challenge me."

"Is he tough?" Onigumo asked, giving his master a feral-looking grin full of bone-white teeth. His eyes traveled briefly over the corpse of the young girl, and Sounga noticed his minion's tongue unconsciously lick his lips. "No offense, Boss, but I haven't had a real challenge since you had me kill that dragon five years back."

Sounga had to smile at his pawn's eagerness to carry out his will. "If the rumors are to be believed, he might even be a challenge for me, so be cautious. I will send a contingent of troops to assist you."

Onigumo was now wearing an ear-to-ear grin. "Don't sweat it, Boss. I'll have this guy's head in a bag for you in two weeks, tops."

Sounga turned serious. "No, Onigumo," he said, "I want him brought here alive. You can maim him if you like, maybe cut off a limb or two, but I want to make him suffer myself. I will kill this dog-demon personally, and when that is done, destiny itself shall have no claim upon me."

Onigumo shrugged. "Sure, Boss, whatever you say. Any idea where this dog-demon is?"

Sounga winced, remembering that he had killed the seer before she had revealed the demon's location. "Alas, no, but I do know that he can change his form, he wields two swords, and that his name is Hiromitsu."

Onigumo bowed, rose to his feet, and flashed his master one last bloodthirsty smile before he turned and walked out of the room.

Sounga leaned back, sighing with satisfaction. The girl's vision had unsettled him; he had worked long and hard to amass what power he had, clawing his way out of the netherworld into the realm of mortals, slaying all other Great Demons in the islands east of Asia and subjugating all the humans in his territory, accumulating power, skill and experience over thousands of years, and the thought of all of that effort being brought to nothing by some young upstart was downright terrifying. Onigumo, however, was a very effective demon-slayer, and if it turned out that this dog-demon was too dangerous to bring in alive ... well, he would probably forgive Onigumo for disobeying orders just this once.

Sounga's thoughts turned to the corpse of the young girl, now cooling on his throne room floor. He considered summoning a servant to clean up the mess, but ultimately decided against it. He allowed his gaze to wander over her sprawled, lifeless form, already white from blood loss, and again realized just how attractive she had been.

_What a waste_, he thought to himself. _Or not..._

Sounga stood up and walked over to the decapitated corpse, planting his sword into the floor between the girl's sundered head and body. Closing his eyes, he channeled his demonic power through the blade, through the girl's blood and into her body...

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Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material":

Hi there, folks, and thanks for tuning in to the new, improved version of "Rise of the Great Dog-Demon"! I've gone over the story, switched a few words around, and hopefully, those who read the first draft will find this to be an improvement over the original.

Plus, I thought I'd add a few notes down here after each chapter, kind of like the "bonus material" on a DVD. Heck, who knows? Some people just might find this stuff interesting ...

-Origins

As you can probably tell, I started work on "Rise" after watching "Swords of an Honorable Ruler", the third Inuyasha movie. It was the first time that I had ever seen Inuyasha's father (well, aside from his king-sized skeleton in the graveyard world), and it left me wondering, "What kind of a character was he? What's his story?"

So, like any good IY addict and fanfic writer, I sat down at my computer and outlined a huge, honkin', five-story epic saga about Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's mysterious dad.

Once I'd figured out a general gameplan, I went around to some of my favorite forums and started asking around about the infamous Inu-papa. Originally, I had thought that his name was Inutaisho, and wrote the first two chapters going on that assumption. However, as Reddbecca from the Wilde Home for Wayward Catgirls informed me, Inuyasha's dad is never actually named on the show. Sesshomaru calls him "Father", IY just calls him "the old man", and everyone else refers to him as the "Great Dog-Demon" or "Great Dog Leader" - "Inu no Taisho", in Japanese. Apparently, some fan mistranslated the title as one word, his name, and it's been passed along among fans like a contagious disease ever since.

This, of course, left me with a very unusual dilemma: I knew what the main character looked like, had some idea of his personality, but no frikkin' idea what his name was!

So I created one for him: Hiromitsu! (Hey, what better name could there be for the "Hiro" of the story?)

After that, everything pretty much fell into place, I revised the first two chapters, and to paraphrase a great man, "the show went on".

-Character Design

This first chapter is basically an introduction to our two villains, Sounga and his henchman, Onigumo. Sounga's appearance, of course, is mostly based on the "renovations" he performs on Takemaru in "Swords" - the red, spiky armor; the black cloak, crimson eyes and pale red skin. I also "flipped" the forehead horns and cheek tattoos that we see on the right side of Takemaru's face, since Sounga still has his original body in this fic, and thus has those details on both sides of his face. Then, of course, there's his famous sword, which will cause a lot of trouble later on. Throw in a black goatee and mustauche _a la _the Devil, and a long ponytail like the one that his "foil", Hiromitsu, will eventually wind up with, and you have Sounga, the Great Demon in his heyday.

Onigumo is basically your typical henchman: Big, burly, and obsessed with beating people up. His all-black armor is an homage to the greatest villain of them all, Darth Vader. He also carries a huge black sword like the ones used by the Uruk-Hai in "Lord of the Rings", except that his is curved into a scimitar, kind of like Sounga's longer, more elegant blade. I thought it might "visually" tie the two together, reinforcing the idea that Onigumo is a pawn of Sounga.

At this point, Saeko is really just a nice-looking plot device. She's the catalyst that starts off the story's action, and as Sounga's helpless victim, her death illustrates just how evil Sounga is. Don't worry, though; she'll be back later, and with a bigger part.

-Plot Development

Like quite a few "epic" action/adventure stories, I started "Rise" off with a prophecy (think, "The 13th Warrior"). It summarizes what the story will be about (the fight between the evil Sounga and the heroic Hiromitsu) and gives a little foreshadowing of developments that will occur during the course of the story - basically, making the audience's mouth start watering for the other nine-and-a-half chapters. And, because it's being told to Sounga, the prophecy also (very conveniently) gets the ball rolling, _making_ the villain seek out the hero and thus set off their conflict.

In this scene, I also wanted to set up Sounga and Onigumo as really, really bad villains, who will deserve every ounce of what they get by the end of the story. So, what could be more despicable, unforgivable and cruel than killing a defenseless blind girl, who's already terrified and can't fight back? I also used the opportunity to set Onigumo up as a filthy lecher - a weakness that will come into play later.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of the story!

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	2. Hiromitsu

Chapter II:

Hiromitsu

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Thatched huts flashed by in a blur. The wind on his face was like a gale-force blast, and Hiromitsu laughed as he dashed past startled rice farmers, flying over the water-filled rice paddies, too fast for gravity itself, let alone the posse of hired ronin who had tried to stop him back at the marketplace. Unable to keep up with the young demon, the armed mercenaries had simply jumped out of his path as he ran, clutching several loaves of bread and a small fish basket. Like most humans, they had a superstitious dread of demons, even young ones, and all Hiromitsu had to do was growl, bare his fangs and lunge, and the men had scattered like autumn leaves. If he hadn't been trying to keep up his terrifying appearance, Hiromitsu would have laughed right in their faces; for the young demon, shoplifting was as easy as a jog around the block.

A few miles outside the village, Hiromitsu stopped, put down his packages, and knocked three times on the trunk of a particular tree, pivoting his long, pointed ears upward. "Is that you, Hiromitsu?" asked a child's voice from somewhere high in the branches.

"Yep, and I got us some breakfast," Hiro said, grinning with pride. "You should have seen those grown-ups back in town; I think I smelled one of them pee in their pants."

"No way!" another voice said, and one by one, a group of ragged-looking children, ranging from age four to age sixteen, made their way down to the ground and clustered around Hiromitsu and his plunder. Except for Hiro, they were all human, orphaned when a company of the Great Demon Sounga's undead soldiers had come through their town, slaying every adult in a show of brute force meant to keep neighboring villages in line. They had tried to run the village by themselves for a time, but then bandits had claimed the children's home, and the young orphans had been on their own ever since.

As for Hiromitsu, nobody was entirely sure where he had come from. One morning, they had found him curled up next to their campfire. He didn't remember his parents, and had been on his own for years before meeting up with them. Hiro had quickly become the children's big brother, teaching them how to survive in the lawless forests and wetlands, and protecting them from occasional attacks by bandits and wild animals. He had never killed anyone in all the time he had been his young friends' protector. With his long white hair, shining golden eyes, and blue-striped skin, Hiromitsu was a pretty frightening spectacle when angry, and relied primarily on intimidation to face down larger and more dangerous opponents.

Hiromitsu watched as everyone waited patiently for their portion of the morning's haul. These children were the only family he could remember, and while none of them had the same abilities that he did, Hiro had never really thought that there was any difference between himself and the other members of the group. He was stronger, he was faster, but he was also the oldest member of the group, so naturally he was more physically capable than the others.

As he kept an eye on the other children, Hiro's gaze momentarily stopped at a young girl with light brown hair, the oldest of the human children, cradling an infant in her arms. The girl's name was Midoriko, and the infant was her baby brother Masuo, born just three weeks before the attack that had wiped out the adults. While Hiro acted as the group's guide and father-figure, Midoriko was their emotional center, and made sure that everyone was well cared for. While neither one of them knew much about accepted dating practices, there was an increasingly strong connection forming between them, and neither one had any idea what to do about it.

Catching himself, Hiromitsu averted his gaze from Midoriko back toward the village. What he saw nearly made him swallow his teeth. Marching outward from the center of town was a huge column of armor-clad figures, led by a rider on horseback.

_Uh oh_, Hiro thought, a cold lump forming in the pit of his stomach. _If I'd known they had that kind of army in this town, I would have just spent the morning gathering berries!_

Hiromitsu turned back to the others. "Uh, guys," he said, "it looks like there are a lot of people with swords coming this way, and it's probably got something to do with me stealing all this stuff. You'd better take the food and go; I'll draw these goons off while you hide in the forest."

"Hiro--" Midoriko said hesitantly, but Hiromitsu cut her off. "No 'buts', Midoriko. You know that some of us can't run fast. I need to make a distraction so those men don't come straight into the forest and start looking for you." He gave her a lopsided smile. "Just run as fast as you can, and I'll meet up with you wherever you go."

Midoriko nodded. "Okay, Hiro. Just be careful, all right?"

Hiromitsu nodded, then dashed through the woods towards the advancing army.

Onigumo was having a great day. Not only had he discovered the whereabouts of this Hiromitsu character Sounga wanted, but he had just finished slaughtering the villagers who had told him where the runt was. He had especially enjoyed taking on the seven ronin who had been hired as guards in the town marketplace. With his superhuman strength and the ability to heal wounds in an instant, he had bested the other warriors easily, then helped his undead troops to finish killing off every adult in the village. He had spared the children, of course; someone needed to survive and carry word of this slaughter to the surrounding towns, and despite his perpetual bloodlust, Onigumo had always felt uncomfortable with killing kids. For whatever reason, he couldn't stand to kill a victim who couldn't put up a fight; it was just plain _boring_.

According to the now-deceased villagers, the young demon had left town earlier that morning, headed into the forest just beyond the rice-farmers' paddies. As soon as his troops were finished with their slaughter, Onigumo mounted his horse - an undead one, of course - and had them assemble behind him in seven rows of twenty. Just as he was about to march toward the forest, however, a white blur launched itself up out of the treetops, landing roughly fifty feet from where Onigumo had first seen it, running straight towards him. The undead enforcer grinned; if all his assignments were this easy, he would have gone mad from boredom decades ago! Drawing his sword, Onigumo made two sweeping arcs, instructing his soldiers to spread out on either side and surround the demon as he approached.

Within twenty seconds, the demon had closed the distance between them to about a hundred feet, slowing as he came, and Onigumo managed to get a good look at this dog-demon Sounga had gotten so worked up about. He didn't look like much, really; he seemed to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, by human standards, with long, wild white hair, yellow eyes, and blue stripes at various places. Frankly, Onigumo had been expecting some giant, hulking Great Demon with swords the size of tree trunks and fire coming out of his nostrils. Still, at least he was old enough to have a little fight in him; Onigumo would enjoy beating the tar out of him, then haul him back to Sounga's citadel and watch as the Great Demon himself beat the runt into a mass of red jelly. He hefted his sword in anticipation, savoring the nearness of his prey.

Hiromitsu finally stopped just within the circle of troops around Onigumo, teeth bared, his hands hooked into fearsome-looking claws. "What?" he said. "Don't tell me all this is about a few loaves of bread and some fish."

Just then, he caught a whiff of the soldiers around him, and instantly realized just how badly he had misjudged these new enemies. They weren't human, that was for sure; every one of them reeked of rotting flesh, and even with full armor on, he could see their glowing red eyes through their helmets. He could smell the fresh blood on their swords, and realized that the villagers from whom he had stolen this morning's catch were probably dead, killed by the men who were now closing in around him.

The _undead _men.

Hiromitsu began growling low in his throat. He had heard stories from the other children about the day their parents had been killed. He knew about the army of undead soldiers who had slain men and women without mercy, and about the huge warrior on horseback who had looked on as it was all done. These, then, were the soldiers of the Great Demon Sounga, and the broad-shouldered, black-armored warrior on horseback had to be the Great Demon's pet butcher, Onigumo.

Onigumo grinned at him. "Actually, it seems you've pissed off more than just the locals. The Great Demon Sounga sent me out here specifically to bring you in."

"I'd say I was honored," Hiromitsu growled through clenched teeth, "but then I'd be just as full of dung as you guys are."

Onigumo threw back his head and guffawed, a full, hearty belly-laugh that might have been pleasant, even charming, if its owner wasn't a corpulent pile of rotting flesh. "Well said! Well said, dog-demon! You've got claws, stripes and _brass_!" Onigumo laughed again, which just raised Hiromitsu's hackles even more.

Then, without warning, the undead warrior drove his spurs into his horse's flanks, and the reanimated steed exploded forward, its rider swinging his blade in a stroke that would have beheaded a slower, human adversary. Hiromitsu, however, was no mere human; he dropped to the ground as Onigumo's sword passed through the space his head had just occupied, turned, and sprang up at the undead horseman, tackling Onigumo and pulling Sounga's chief enforcer right out of his saddle. Hiromitsu had never killed anyone in his life - he only killed rabbits, fish and waterfowl when he needed meat - but the stench of evil rolling off this monster was driving him into a frenzy, and before they had even hit the ground, Hiro had already slashed through Onigumo's armor with his claws, carving out huge chunks of foul-smelling inhuman flesh. Then he felt a heavy boot against his solar plexus, and Hiromitsu went flying backward, breathless, crashing upside-down into a wall of undead soldiers who had been waiting for just this moment to close in and overwhelm him.

For Hiro, it was as if he had just been dropped into an open grave; the stench of rotten flesh was enough to make him gag, making it even harder to breathe and replenish the wind that Onigumo had knocked out of him. Hiromitsu clawed frantically at the armor-clad corpses, ripping off limbs, heads, armor plating and chunks of flesh, barely feeling the punches and cuts that they were raining down on him with gauntlets and shortswords. Finally, Hiromitsu gathered his remaining strength and extended all of his limbs at once. The impact of his feet and fists sent the troops nearest him into the air, slamming backward into their fellows and giving Hiro some much-needed breathing room. Bloody, bruised and covered with a foul-smelling miasma, Hiromitsu got shakily to his feet and drew in a long-delayed breath of fresh air.

Just as Onigumo drove an iron-clad fist straight into his nose.

Hiro barely registered the pain of his injury, or the resounding CRACK! as his nose broke. The sheer impact of Onigumo's inhumanly strong punch made him feel as though his brain was ricocheting around inside his skull, and the world went stark white for a few seconds. He staggered five steps backward, but quickly got his legs under control - _anything _but another round with the Smelly Ghoul Squad! - and barely managed to grab Onigumo's wrists as he tried to bring his black iron sword through a downward slash that would have sheared off Hiromitsu's left arm at the shoulder. With both of his hands thus occupied, though, the rest of him was wide open, and Onigumo brought his knee up into Hiro's unprotected groin. The young demon howled in agony, his grip loosened, and Onigumo shoved him backward. Then he let loose with a roundhouse kick, this time hitting Hiro's lower jaw and sending the boy sprawling flat on his back, finally unconscious.

Onigumo stretched his neck - making a loud, horrific squelching sound - and sheathed his sword, taking a moment to look over his fallen adversary. The kid had been a real disappointment; other than a few deep slashes in his midsection, Onigumo hadn't suffered any injuries at all, and had barely even needed to use his sword. A few punches and kicks, and the runt had gone down without so much as breaking one of Onigumo's toes. The undead enforcer considered decapitating the boy right there on the field - really, Sounga would get bored with this kid after five minutes - but he had his orders, so he had his soldiers tie the boy up and put him on the back of Onigumo's horse. Then he rode off at full gallop towards Sounga's mountain citadel, leaving his soulless, undead troops to follow after him at their own shuffling pace.

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Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Character Design

And now, of course, we introduce our main character, the star of the show, the hero of our tale, etc, etc., Hiromitsu! His long white hair, blue stripes and golden eyes are right out of the third movie. Of course, he's a lot younger than he will be when he meets Izayoi (by about two hundred years, to be exact), and he's living out in the wilderness, so he doesn't have the nice threads, armor or swords that he'll pick up later.

At first, I wondered whether I should make him a cool, confident character like Sesshomaru, or a wild, rough-around-the-edges guy like Inuyasha. As you can probably tell, I went with the Inuyasha-style personality, since he already looks enough like ol' Fluffy, and it gives more room for him to change into the stoic warrior we see in "Swords".

This chapter also introduces Midoriko, who fans will recognize as the great demon-slaying priestess who will one day seal a lot of demons inside the infamous Shikkon no Tama, or "Jewel of Four Souls". How does she get from here to there? I'm not telling!

Yet...

-Plot Development

Just as the first chapter establishes Sounga as a really evil character, the first part of this chapter is devoted to showing what a nice guy Hiromitsu is. Sure, he steals some food, but he doesn't hurt anyone in the process, and immediately divides it among a bunch of orphans. It also sets up the attraction between Hiro and Midoriko, which will play a big part later.

By having Hiro lose his first fight, it also lets the reader know that he's not perfect; he has weaknesses, particularly his inexperience, so there's no guarantee that he'll come out on top. It makes the story more interesting.

-Fight Choreography

The battle with Onigumo is typical Inuyasha stuff; two super-powered opponents go at it, and the fight only ends when one is knocked senseless. Since Hiromitsu doesn't have any weapons and is extremely inexperienced, his fighting style relies mostly on fast reflexes, superhuman strength and killer instinct; good for hunting animals, but not good for taking down an experienced opponent.

Onigumo's style also relies mostly on brute strength, but unlike Hiromitsu, he has a slightly wider variety of hand-to-hand moves. While his swordsmanship isn't all that great, he makes up for it by using unconventional attacks, like tossing opponents into a crowd of living dead to wear them down, or attacking with his foot when his enemy is worried about his big, black sword. He doesn't have a lot of finesse, but he really doesn't need it; with superhuman strength and super-fast healing, all he has to do is keep knocking his opponents around until they finally die or pass out.

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	3. Sounga, The Great Demon

Chapter III:

Sounga, the Great Demon

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When Hiromitsu woke up, all he could see was a solid wall of darkness. He tried to stand up, but his body ached all over, so the best he could do without blacking out was to force himself into a sitting position. Gradually, his vision began to clear, and he was able to make out more of his surroundings. He was in a large, unlit room. The walls, ceiling and floor were made of some rich, dark wood, but the entire place seemed to be overgrown, not with vines, but with strange lumpy red tendrils that resembled animal flesh more than plants. The entire place stank of anger, blood, and a strong undercurrent of raw evil. He also recognized the smell of the undead soldiers that had helped subdue him, and knew that this place had to be the home of Sounga, the Great Demon who had reanimated those monsters and sent them out to do his bidding.

As if on cue, something moved far back in the shadowy room, and a large man-shape stood up and started toward him. As it approached, Hiromitsu got his first good look at the Great Demon Sounga, self-appointed ruler of all the islands east of the Asian continent and the most feared being in the land.

Frankly, he was a little underwhelmed.

Hiromitsu had imagined the legendary Great Demon as being huge, barrel-chested, a strong and terrifying adversary befitting his reputation. The humanoid being in front of him was just a little over six feet tall, lean and lanky, covered in black and red-spiked armor in an attempt to make him look bigger and more intimidating; a human on horseback would have towered over him. The curved horns sticking out of his forehead were little more than decorations, and his long, ankle-length braided ponytail made Hiromitsu think of rich ladies the other kids had told him about, who had nothing better to do with their time and money than pay hairdressers and tailors to mess around with their appearance and call it "fashion".

Sounga noted the lack of fear in the boy's eyes and scowled. "So, you are the one supposedly destined to defeat me? You are the great dog-demon meant to kill the most powerful being this world has ever seen?"

"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but I'm no dog," Hiro growled, "and you don't look as powerful as you seem to think you are, pal."

Sounga snarled, lashing out with the spiked toe of his boot - and Hiro caught it before the Great Demon's kick could connect with his already-throbbing jaw. He had just been beaten up by a bunch of smelly walking corpses, and there was no way in hell that he was going to let this skinny, red-faced, porcupine-spiked wimp push him around, too. As Sounga's eyes widened in surprise - it had been centuries since anyone had dared attack him physically! - Hiro used his grip on the older demon's foot to shove him backward, off-balance, struggling to stand on one foot. Hiro started getting up, fully intending to pursue Sounga and give him what for, when a searing pain in his back brought him crashing to his knees, gasping for breath, multicolored spots dancing in front of his eyes.

Sounga's expression shifted instantly from stark surprise to smug, self-assured gloating. "So, dog-demon," he said, mockingly, "where are your swords of light? Are you going to change your shape for me?" He placed his foot on Hiro's aching back and pushed him to the ground. "Or do you just intend to scratch me to death with your pitiful little claws?"

"I don't ... know ... what you're ... talking about ... you jerk! I can't change shape, and I don't even own a sword! You just killed a whole village full of people for no good reason!"

Sounga's confident expression faltered for a moment. Could he possibly have miscalculated? Could the real dog-demon be running loose at this very moment, preparing for a sneak attack perhaps, still on course for the battle that was fated to bring about Sounga's downfall? Then he bared his teeth, bent down, and grabbed a handful of Hiro's long white hair. "What is your name, runt?" he hissed in the boy's ear.

"Hiromitsu. Why do you care?"

Satisfied, Sounga grinned in triumph, and shoved the boy's head to the floor with a heavy thump! The young demon was obviously lying about his lack of shape-changing ability, as well as not having two swords. His name was just what the blind girl had said it would be, and his coloration matched exactly with the description she had given. Of course, Sounga had no intention of letting the rest of the prophecy come to pass - the part where this dog-demon killed him with a pair of magic swords. He stomped down hard on the small of the runt's back, bringing forth a cry of pain. Encouraged, Sounga brought his foot down again, and again on the back of his head, and again on his shoulder blades, and finally kicked Hiromitsu in the temple so hard that the young demon flew through a wall, blacking out for the second time in one day.

For a moment, Sounga wanted to finish the brat off there and then, crushing him to so much ground meat beneath his boot heel. Then, he thought of how the boy had tried to assault him - to actually, physically hurt him! - and decided that killing Hiromitsu while unconscious was better than the impudent little runt deserved. At his silent command, two undead soldiers walked in and picked the fallen demon up, binding his wrists and ankles with a set of manacles inscribed with strength-sapping arcane runes. Then he pointed out through the entryway, and the two corpses carried Hiromitsu down to the dungeon Sounga kept in the lowest level of his citadel. Sounga walked back over to his throne and sat down heavily. For a moment, he had seen an enemy who held absolutely no fear of him, and it had almost made him feel ... frightened?

_Impossible_, Sounga thought to himself. _I am a Great Demon, ruler of this land and the most powerful being east of the continent. Why should I fear some stripling without so much as a decent sword? _Fear was something he had left behind him long ago, when he had escaped the underworld and emerged into a realm populated solely by weaker creatures. He was the most powerful being on this plane of existence, and soon this entire world would tremble at the merest whisper of his name.

So satisfied, Sounga allowed himself to relax, and called three more of his minions in to repair the wall he had just knocked down.

-----

Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Plot Development

This is where the hero and the villain meet each other. There's not too much more to it, really. Once Hiro meets Sounga face-to-face, their rivalry becomes personal.

I also thought that it would be interesting to re-introduce Sounga, but this time, from Hiro's perspective. It gives some insight into the way Hiromitsu gauges his enemies; not by how they try to appear, but by their actions.

By having Hiromitsu lose again, it reinforces his initial vulnerability, and gives him a very good reason to hate Sounga. It also provides a reason for him to stay in Sounga's citadel, where he'll find out just why all of this is happening to him.

-----


	4. In the Dungeon

Chapter IV:

In the Dungeon

-----

For the second time in the same day, Hiromitsu awoke to darkness. This time, however, he was standing upright - or, rather, being held upright by a pair of steel manacles with strange writing etched into them. As his eyes regained focus, Hiro saw that the room he was now in was different from Sounga's throne room. This place had a floor, ceiling, and three walls of solid stone, as though the room had been hewn right out of a mountainside, with a heavy wooden door set into the wall directly facing him. The only light came from a single barred window in the wall behind him; from the dim white quality of the light that was coming in, he guessed that it was now after dark, and the full moon was shining through, though he couldn't walk over to the window and check. The cell was large, and in the poor light, Hiromitsu couldn't see the walls on either side of him. There was at least one set of empty manacles to his left, so he supposed that this room was meant to hold several prisoners at a time. While the reek of Sounga's rage and evil was less intense down here, there was another, equally unpleasant odor: the smell of despair, of the hopelessness of centuries of prisoners chained down here and left to waste away in darkness.

Hiromitsu sagged against the wall. Two times in the same day, he had been beaten up - first by Onigumo, then by his master, the badly misnamed "Great Demon", Sounga. For years, Hiro had been the protector of his small group of orphaned children, fending off wild animals and bandits and finding food for them all to eat. Now, he found himself alone in a strange place, his friends probably lost and hungry in the middle of nowhere. He had been reduced to a bruised, aching wreck by two inhuman creeps with less than half a conscience between them. He was injured, insulted, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

Hiromitsu couldn't help it. He began sobbing.

"Oh, quit yer blubbering," scolded a dry, scratchy voice from the shadows, "you're not the only one Sounga's laid flat. Just be glad he decided not to recruit you into his undead army just yet."

Hiro's head snapped toward the voice, his golden eyes shining in the darkness. "Who's that?" he asked.

He could make out a human-like shape several feet away, chained to the wall just as he was. "The name's Totosai," the figure said, and Hiromitsu could just make out a pair of eyes as it turned toward him. "Totosai" looked like an old, emaciated man, but as Hiro looked closer, he noticed that his fellow prisoner also had a pair of long, pointed ears, rather than the normal circular lobes that most people had.

"Hey!" Hiro exclaimed, "you've got long ears like mine!"

"'Course I do. It's a common trait among demons like us."

"What are you talking about? I'm not a demon like that creep Sounga!"

Totosai laughed softly, a sound like sand pouring through a dry, rusted pipe, and Hiro wondered just how long the old man had been stuck down here. "Boy, have you been wearing blinders all your life? Didn't it ever occur to you that most humans aren't as strong or as fast as you? Didn't you ever wonder why none of your little friends had purple stripes on their faces?"

"They're blue," Hiro said numbly, still reeling from this sudden revelation. How could he possibly have anything in common with a monster like Sounga? He wasn't cruel or evil; he had friends and responsibilities. He couldn't be a demon!

And yet, Totosai's words made too much sense for him to just ignore them. He was faster than most humans, even grown-ups. He had knocked the tar out of Onigumo's undead minions, and they weren't much tougher than the average human - other than the fact that they didn't die when you killed them, but at least they weren't much stronger. He had seen Midoriko dressing wounds on the other children that Hiro's body would have healed instantly. Midoriko...

And then it hit him, the ultimate denial. "Wait! Everyone knows that demons can't love or care about people, but I do! If I love somebody, doesn't that mean that I'm not a demon?"

Totosai gave another dry, rasping laugh. "Boy, that's just a myth created by humans! Some evil demons like Sounga may be downright heartless, but most of us just act tough to scare off trouble."

Hiro's sudden relief imploded like an untied balloon. "Oh," he said.

"Don't worry about it, boy. Just 'cause you're a demon, that doesn't make you evil like that GUTLESS WORM, SOUNGA!" Totosai shouted up at the ceiling, as though Sounga could hear him from however many floors up he was.

"So, how did you get sent down here?" asked Hiromitsu.

"I used to work as a blacksmith," Totosai replied. "I made swords and weapons for a clan of demon-slayers up north." The old demon sighed, closing his eyes. "We always thought that, one day, we'd be strong enough to beat Sounga, free the people of the eastern islands. Then he sent an army of those dead soldiers of his, and they carted me off, along with some of the villagers. I hear that the others managed to beat him back in the end, but that didn't help me much, as you can probably tell." Totosai jingled his chains for emphasis. "Sounga killed the others and made their bodies into soldiers for his army. Then he beat me within an inch of my life and stuck me down here, just so he could bat me around every fifty years or so when he gets bored. That old monster may be a dragon underneath, but he likes to play with his enemies like a dang cat."

"A dragon?"

"Yes," Totosai said, "though Sounga most often stays in his human form, he was originally a demon dragon from the netherworld. Rumor has it that he used one of his own fangs to make that sword of his, then opened a gateway to our world and started taking over."

"You mean that his sword is just a big tooth?"

"Swords that contain a part of their owner's essence are the most powerful of all weapons," Totosai replied. "Because Sounga's sword is made from a part of him, he can channel his full power through it, even when his body is in human form. He can use that sword to open gateways to his home in the underworld, resurrect a hundred dead men with one sweep, and even channel his demon strength into blasts of pure destructive power."

"Whoa," Hiro said, wide-eyed, "that's amazing. If he didn't use it to hurt people, it might even be kind of neat."

Totosai exhaled deeply. "I tried for years to make a sword that could beat it, but I could never find the fang of a demon powerful enough to match Sounga when he's at full strength. He's a Great Demon, and since he slaughtered all the other Great Demons living in these lands when he first arrived, there's just no way to duplicate his kind of power anymore."

They both hung in silence for a while. Finally, an idea hit Hiromitsu. "Hey, Totosai," he said, "I just remembered something. Sounga sai-- YEOW!" Suddenly, Hiro felt a sharp pain in his neck, like a mosquito bite, and pressed his neck into his shoulder reflexively.

"Mmph! Smushed!" a tiny voice cried out, and Hiromitsu pulled his head back up, blinking in surprise. Pressed into his shoulder was a tiny, now-flattened figure with four arms, two legs, and a pointed proboscis for a mouth. As he watched, the miniscule creature seemed to reinflate, becoming a small, round, human-like being, complete with a tiny cloth shirt and pants. The little creature regained its shape with an audible _pop, _then sat up, shaking its head. "Oof!" it said, "Mind who you're squishing, young man! If I were any ordinary flea, I'd have been killed just now!"

"Ah, Myoga!" Totosai called out, "What's the word from upstairs?"

"The same as always, I'm afraid," the little flea demon said, brushing himself off. "There's a madman running the castle, people are being killed by the dozen, and there's nobody who seems able to stop him."

"And? How's Miss Saeko doing?"

"Actually, that's what I came down to talk to you about. She asked me to see if this young _flea-smusher_--" Myoga shot Hiromitsu a sour look "--was awake. Since he very clearly is, I shall go up and tell her. She said she should be down in a few minutes."

"Ooh, good! Tell her to bring down those little fried wontons she made last time."

"My apologies, Totosai," Myoga said, "but I'm afraid tonight's entree was beef and broccoli with soy sauce." With that, the tiny flea-demon hopped from Hiro's shoulder to the window, then began climbing up the stone walls of the citadel, disappearing from sight.

Totosai gave a resigned-sounding sigh. "Ah, well," he said philosophically, "beggars can't be choosers, I suppose."

"Who's Miss Saeko?" Hiromitsu asked, now thoroughly bewildered.

"Saeko was brought to the castle just two weeks ago, the poor thing. Sounga killed her, then brought her body back to life, trapping her soul inside it. She may be one of the living dead, but she's still a very nice girl. She's been sneaking me leftovers from Sounga's meals ever since she came here."

Hiromitsu felt his head start spinning again - a nice, charitable, undead girl? He could barely even imagine such a creature - but his confusion melted away like a morning fog when the door opened. Into the cell walked the most eerily beautiful young woman Hiro had ever seen. Since the door of the cell was directly opposite its single window, the moonlight struck her face full-on. He could see the faint outline of her fine cheekbones through her pale, almost translucent skin. Her green eyes shone with reflected light, and Hiromitsu realized that Saeko was blind. Her long black hair billowed out behind her as though immune to the pull of gravity. She wore a beautiful burgundy kimono of shimmering silk, with gold Kanji script tastefully embroidered on it. Even though Hiromitsu could smell her strange, undead flesh, Saeko didn't stink of the grave the way Sounga's minions did; she must have been resurrected very soon after her death, without being given time to decompose.

Saeko walked straight forward, carrying a small tray of food in front of her. When the edge of the tray hit the wall, she backed up a step and tapped on the iron bars over the window, producing a long, resonant ringing sound like a set of chimes. Then she smiled, and turned straight toward Hiromitsu, as though the sound of the ringing bars somehow allowed her to see him. "It's you, isn't it!" she said, beaming. "You're Hiromitsu!" Her brow furrowed slightly. "Aren't you?"

"Um ... yeah, but how do you know my name?"

"I saw you in my dreams!" Saeko said, her face positively radiating happiness. She reached out with her free hand and felt the contours of Hiro's face. "You're the one who's going to fight Sounga and make everything all right!"

"Been there, tried that, got my butt kicked. Sorry."

Saeko's face froze in shock. "What?" she asked, her voice little more than a whisper.

Hiro groaned. "Look, Sounga just beat me upstairs, then he sent me down here. I tried to fight him, but I was in bad shape after Onigumo caught me, so Sounga ended up stomping me like a bug. Is that enough detail for you?"

Saeko put her free hand over her mouth, her eyes widening with horror. "Oh no," she said, "Oh no, oh no, oh no..."

"What is it?" Hiromitsu asked.

"I ... I told him your name. I thought that, if he went out looking for you, you would fight with Sounga and defeat him. That's what happened in my dream!"

Hiromitsu felt anger welling up in him. "So, you're saying that it was you who told Sounga about me? _You _told him my name!"

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for any of this to happen! I thought that you were going to defeat him!"

It was a good thing Hiromitsu's wrists were chained to the wall; if they had been free, he might have grabbed Saeko and tried to strangle her. "YOU TOLD SOUNGA TO COME AND FIND ME?" he roared, his face twisted into a snarl.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know ... I'm so sorry!" Saeko took several stumbling steps backward, her unseeing eyes wide with terror.

"What about my friends? Did you tell him about them? Is he going to kill them, too?"

"No! I swear, I don't even know anything about your friends! I never told Sounga about them! Please don't be angry with me!"

Saeko's words struck a chord deep within Hiromitsu, and suddenly he saw himself as she must see him: a snarling monster as full of rage as Sounga, barking angrily at her to ease his own frustration. He slumped back against the stone wall, ashamed of himself. "Um, look, Miss Saeko," he began, "I'm ... sorry I yelled at you."

The girl looked at him again, no longer cringing. Hiro took a deep breath and went on with his apology. "I've had a lousy day, and I know you didn't mean to get me into trouble, so I'm sorry I shouted at you like that."

"R-really?"

"Yeah, really."

Before Hiromitsu knew what was happening, she had wrapped her arms around his neck, and was holding on tight. "I'm so sorry I caused you all this trouble, Hiromitsu," she said, and he felt cold tears on his neck. "This was all because of my stupid dreams. I wish I hadn't been born this way!"

"What way?"

Saeko let go, stepping back and fixing Hiromitsu with her sightless yet direct gaze. "Ever since I was little, I've seen the future in my dreams. It's the only time I can see, really, and for a long time, people treated me like some kind of fortuneteller, asking me all kinds of things. When I said that I'd dreamed that someone would kill Sounga, the Great Demon must have heard about it, and he had me brought here so that he could find out who was going to finally defeat him." Saeko looked away, remembering the last terrifying moments of her mortal life. "I tried to make him think that I really couldn't see the future, but he didn't believe me, so I told him your name. I thought that, if I could get Sounga to go out and look for you, I could speed things up and you would defeat him sooner."

A few more tears trickled down her pale cheeks. "All of this has happened because I thought that I could control fate. I thought that, because I was the only one who could see visions, I could make them happen by myself." The cold, undead girl began sobbing. "And now I've ruined everything! You're trapped here with us, I'm not even real anymore, and hundreds of people will die!" She wrapped herself around him again, still crying like a child. "Oh, Hiromitsu, can you forgive me for what I've done?"

Hiro's eyes darted around as he blushed. "Um ... sure. I mean, you were just trying to do what you thought was best, right? It's not your fault that I was too weak to beat Sounga; it's mine."

Saeko held him tighter. For several long minutes, they stayed that way, with Saeko holding onto Hiromitsu, trembling, as Hiromitsu hung from his wrists, a million different emotions running around in his mind. Was he really the one who was supposed to beat Sounga? If he was, then how could Sounga have thrashed him so completely just a few minutes ago? And should he be disgusted by the cold embrace of this pale, bloodless blind woman, or should he let her keep holding him?

In the end, Hiromitsu craned his neck and began rubbing his cheek against Saeko's soft, silky hair, murmuring reassuring words to the trembling young girl.

"Look, I hate to break up you two lovebirds, but could you bring those leftovers this way? I haven't eaten all day!" Totosai complained from way back in the shadows. Saeko broke off immediately, and despite her unnaturally pale complexion, Hiromitsu saw that she was blushing just as fiercely as he was. Then she fixed a cheerful smile on her face and turned in the direction of the old demon's voice. "Just a moment!" she called, and brought the tray of beef and broccoli over to him. Since Totosai was chained much as Hiromitsu was, Saeko had to feed him herself with a pair of chopsticks. After a few minutes, Totosai gave a satisfied belch, and Saeko came back over to Hiromitsu and fed him the rest of Sounga's leftover dinner. After a lifetime of bread, fish, and the occasional wild animal, it was the best thing Hiro had ever tasted, and despite the aches and pains all throughout his body, he suddenly felt better than he had in a long while.

When the plate had been completely cleaned off, Saeko smiled at Hiromitsu, then tapped the iron bars of the window again and walked toward the door. As she went through, Hiro saw that the door itself had only a pair of metal brackets on the other side, probably meant to hold a wood or iron bar. Saeko could come and go as she pleased, but as long as he and Totosai were stuck to the wall with their enchanted manacles, even she could not bring them out with her. Before she left, she turned back toward Hiromitsu, and Hiro knew that, if he weren't being held up, his legs would have turned to jelly in the light of Saeko's brilliant smile.

"Good night," she said.

"G'night," Hiro mumbled, and Saeko shut the door, replacing the bar - from the sound of it, it was made of metal. For a moment, Hiro could only hang there and breathe, the memory of Saeko's face burned into his vision. Then a tiny spasm in his lower back reminded him that he was still hurting, he was still a prisoner, and he was bone-tired.

"So, Hiromitsu," Totosai asked conversationally, "what was it you were going to say when Myoga came in?"

Hiro struggled to remember his earlier thought; it felt like that had been a lifetime ago. Finally, he said, "I heard Sounga say that, in the prophecy, I was supposed to beat him with two magic swords. If all you need is a tooth, then maybe you could use two of mine to make them for me. Maybe we can make the prophecy happen on our own!"

"Keh!" Totosai gave a snort. "We'll be lucky if we ever escape from this place, let alone if I get the chance to make swords again. Besides, you saw what playing Buddha did to Saeko." The old demon sighed wearily."Still, if we do make it out of here, I promise that the first thing I'll do is to make you a pair of swords that could split the whole world in two. How's that for a deal?"

Though he knew Totosai was just being sarcastic, Hiromitsu felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Suddenly, he had something to hope for.

In minutes, sleep overtook him, and Hiromitsu fell asleep on the wall, dreaming of Sounga's rage-filled grimace ... and of a giant, snow-white dog standing over him, shining with light and power.

Weeks went by. Sometimes, Sounga would send Onigumo or some other minion to rough up Hiromitsu, and the young man had a feeling that the sadistic Great Demon could see everything they did, watching through their eyes and savoring the defenseless youth's agony like a fine wine.

Every night, Saeko would come down while Sounga meditated after his evening meal, and Hiromitsu found that, rather than weakening, Saeko's delicious meals were helping him to maintain what strength he had.

Little Myoga, the flea-demon, would pass messages back and forth between the prisoners and Saeko, who Sounga used as a serving-girl on the upper levels of the citadel, and Hiromitsu did his best to let the tiny creature drink his fill of fresh blood, rather than trying to squash him.

Totosai helped a lot, too; his stories and his jokes helped make the aching time between beatings almost bearable, and every now and then, they would talk about what they would do if they ever got free: the places they would go, the things they would do. Totosai longed to going back to his old village, meeting the descendants of his human friends from long ago, maybe working as a blacksmith for a while before going off on his own and exploring the countryside.

Hiromitsu, for his part, dreamed of finding the children who had been his only family for so long; of running in the forests with them, watching over them and keeping them safe as they all grew up together.

And sometimes, as though Saeko's visions were contagious, he also dreamed of the day that he would face Sounga again, standing tall, Totosai's powerful swords in hand, making his stand between the Great Demon and the people he cared about.

And, in his dreams, he always won.

-----

Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Plot Development

This chapter is basically one long, complicated piece of exposition. It was perhaps the hardest chapter for me to write, because the trick with exposition is to keep it interesting, so that it doesn't get preachy and slow down the action too much. So, while Hiro is learning about Saeko's prophecy, Totosai's backstory and Sounga's true nature, he's also meeting three new characters, getting in a shouting match, dealing with his troubled conscience, and experiencing a little romantic tension.

Aside from giving Hiro (and the reader) some necessary information, this chapter also re-introduces Saeko, this time as Sounga's hostage and a minor love interest (remember, Hiro's already got Midoriko out there waiting for him). We also meet little Myoga and Totosai, the latter of which will play a key part very soon. It's also the first mention of the village of demon-slayers that will become the site for the story's climax.

-Character Design

While Hiromitsu's girlfriend, Midoriko, has already been introduced, I decided to add Saeko back into the story as a "damsel in distress". She's really a tragic character; if Hiro wins, she'll die right along with Sounga, but if he loses, she faces an eternity as the Great Demon's slave. Her appearance marks her as one of Sounga's minions - her body is bloodless and cold, and her kimono is Sounga's favorite color: red (well, technically burgundy, but close enough...). Still, by her actions, she proves that she is basically a good character. And because Hiro is more concerned with people's actions than with appearances, that also makes her someone for him to care about.

Myoga, of course, is still the smushable little guy we'll know and love four hundred years from now, and Totosai is already his crotchety old self, albiet long-haired and malnourished. As we already know from watching the anime, he's also the one who will eventually forge Hiromitsu's famous swords, though this chapter gives his backstory some fleshing-out.

-----


	5. Escape

Chapter V:

Escape

-----

One night, almost two months after Hiromitsu had been brought captive to Sounga's mountain citadel, the door to the cell opened at the usual time. Hiromitsu was currently sporting an extensive assortment of bruises and cuts; Sounga had sent Onigumo in that afternoon to pummel him again. Though Sounga himself never came down to the dungeon, Hiro knew that the Great Demon enjoyed his suffering vicariously through his minions. Had his wrists and ankles not been chained to the wall by enchanted iron manacles, he would have given Onigumo a good shellacking; as it was, he had only been able to spit a bit of blood in the chief enforcer's eye, which had only served to encourage Sounga's undead butcher and make this day's beating even worse than usual.

Saeko entered, with little Myoga perched on her shoulder, carrying the usual plate of Sounga's leftovers and a pair of chopsticks. For some reason, there was a strange sense of uneasiness radiating from her, and her sightless eyes darted about more than usual. "Is something wrong, Saeko?" he asked as she held out the chopsticks to feed him a morsel of stir-fried pork.

The pale girl gave him her best forced smile, but Hiromitsu sensed her nervousness; he could smell it like a whiff of smoke from some burning dread inside her. "I'm fine, Hiro," she said, still trying to smile, "but you've got to finish eating quickly tonight. There's something I want to show you both."

"If it's what's under that pretty red kimono of yours, girl, you can forget it," Totosai quipped from his spot to Hiromitsu's right. "I make it a point of pride that I've never slept with one of the living dead, and I'm never going to."

Everyone had to laugh at that, though Saeko's cheeks went an almost normal-looking shade of pink and she said something about Totosai being a dirty lecher. Then she went over to Totosai and began feeding him the rest of the food, even though Hiromitsu hadn't even finished his half!

"Hey!" Hiro called over, "I wasn't done yet!"

"Sorry, Hiro, but it's Totosai who's really going to need his strength tonight."

Totosai shifted uncomfortably in his chains. "Look, if this is about that joke I made, I apologize. Fair enough? Just don't do anything ... odd. I'm afraid cold flesh doesn't do anything for me."

"Oh, pipe down, you old coot. No offense, but wrinkly old demons a dozen times my age don't do anything for _me_."

Totosai sighed with relief, and gratefully accepted the food Saeko began feeding him. Hiromitsu just looked on, wondering why Saeko had just shortchanged him in favor of Totosai.

Several moments later, Saeko placed the empty bowl and chopsticks on the floor, then reached inside her robe and pulled out a long, heavy iron nail. She held the object out and placed it in one of Totosai's shackled hands. "Now, Totosai, I want you to listen to me very carefully. If you can melt that nail down onto the writing on your chains, it should cover the runes written on them and let you melt the chains themselves."

Totosai's eyes lit up, even as Hiromitsu's brow furrowed in confusion. "How's he supposed to do that?" he asked Saeko. "It's almost as though you expect the poor old guy to breathe fi--"

Suddenly, Totosai drew in a deep breath, then shot a jet of flame through his lips, instantly turning the nail into a dripping red piece of molten metal. "WHOA!" Hiro yelled, jumping in his shackles, startled by the burst of light and heat in their normally cold, dim cell. In moments, the liquefied iron that had been the nail had dripped from Totosai's fingers - which seemed immune to his bizarre natural flame - and onto one of his shackles. There was an electric crackling sound, and blue sparks jumped from Totosai's chains as whatever enchantments Sounga had placed upon them were rendered null and void. Grinning from ear to ear, Totosai turned and let loose another blast, this time melting the manacle on his right wrist like candle wax. Then he craned his neck and melted each of his ankle cuffs in turn, and finally, Totosai was standing under his own power, bits of semi-molten metal still clinging harmlessly to his wrists and ankles, his wizened features positively radiant with joy, free at last!

Hiromitsu goggled at him. "Totosai, I ... I didn't know you could do that!"

"'Course I can!" the emaciated old demon exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips. "I _am _a fire demon, you know!"

Saeko, meanwhile, walked up beside Totosai and guided him over to Hiromitsu. At first, the older demon had trouble walking; long years of immobility and poor circulation had not been kind to his muscles, and Saeko had to work to keep the stick-thin fellow upright. Finally, the pair managed to stumble over to Hiromitsu, who was still chained to the wall, an expression of shock on his wide-eyed young face. "All right, young man," Totosai said, "just hold out your hand and try not to move. I'm just going to melt the chains, not your cuffs."

"Can you do that without another nail?" asked Hiro. "My chains have spells on them, too."

Saeko shook her head. "Your chains just drain your strength so that you can't break them. They weren't meant to be fireproof like Totosai's," she said.

"How do you know all of this?" Hiro asked, amazed.

Saeko gave him a mischievious smile. "Do you think I'm just sitting up there sipping sake with Sounga all day while you two suffer? I ask him a question, and he spends an hour gloating about how well he knows the answer."

Hiromitsu nodded, then held his right hand as far from his body as he could, pulling the chain tight. Totosai shot another burst of flame, and the chain melted and snapped, sparking like a cut electrical wire. In moments, Hiromitsu was free as well, the cuffs on his ankles and wrists separated from their chains and stripped of their enchantments. Curious, Hiro grabbed one of his wrist cuffs, pulled, and discovered that he could now break the cuffs easily. It took Hiro just a few more seconds to remove the last of his bonds, and when he was finished, he, Totosai and Saeko were all standing in the middle of the cell, without a single link of chain among them.

Before Hiro or Totosai had time to celebrate, however, Saeko grabbed their arms and pulled them out of the cell. Beyond the cell door was a narrow corridor, and they took a left, climbing up a flight of stairs, with Hiro and Saeko supporting the elderly Totosai. When they reached the top, they left the stairwell and went along another corridor with a cherry-wood floor and ceiling and rice-paper walls, all of it overgrown with those strange, red, fleshy tendrils Hiromitsu remembered from Sounga's throne room. It was as though Sounga had somehow made the entire citadel into a living, pulsing part of himself, with the throbbing red tendrils acting as sinews or nerve tissue. Once again, Hiromitsu's nostrils were assaulted by the stench of the Great Demon's rage and evil.

At the end of the corridor, they all turned right ... straight into a pair of Sounga's undead soldiers, clad from head to toe in red armor, their glowing crimson eyes visible through their masks. Both corpses drew their swords in perfect tandem, preparing to slice the intruders to bits, but Totosai was faster, and spat a stream of red-hot fire at the living dead. Instantly, both of the soldiers burst into flames, as though their inhuman flesh was nothing more than a mass of oil-soaked rags. Without so much as a scream, they dropped to the floor, spasming wildly as their bodies were burned to ash.

Saeko pulled hard on his arm. "Quickly! You have to go now! Every one of those monsters is controlled by Sounga's will. He's probably already sensed their deaths, and it won't be long before we're caught!" So saying, she stepped gingerly over the soldiers' remains, in such a way that Hiromitsu realized that, being one of the living dead, Saeko herself was probably just as flammable. He and Totosai would have to be careful about torching any more of Sounga's troops around her ...

As a Great Demon, Sounga had little need for sleep as humans knew it. Still, after his evening meal, he often chose to spend time in meditation, keeping his mind and body in prime condition and checking on the status of his various endeavors.

Through the eyes of his soldiers, he could be in hundreds of places at once. He was a company of troops rampaging through a small coastal fishing village, burning houses and slaughtering every adult in the area, leaving the terrified children to scatter and spread word of the Great Demon's ferocity to the neighboring villages. He was a squad of reanimated corpses excavating the ruins of a shrine where, according to rumor, an ancient artifact of great power had been kept for generations. He watched through Onigumo's eyes as his chief enforcer advanced upon a buxom young woman his troops had kidnapped that morning, experiencing the undead killer's lust.

And he was every soldier in his citadel complex, monitoring the goings-on, aware of every sound and movement...

Suddenly, Sounga felt intense pain from two of his troops. Even as their eyes melted in their sockets, Sounga peered through them and saw the boy demon, that decrepit old fire-demon Totosai ... and the blind girl Saeko, whom he had resurrected! His eyes snapped open, and Sounga's crimson face twisted into a grimace of hate. Somehow, that little wench had managed to hide her thoughts from him, and now she had freed both of his prisoners!

_ONIGUMO_! Sounga gave a mental shout.

"Huh?" Onigumo said aloud, looking about his spacious suite within Sounga's citadel. "Boss? What's up?" To the terrified young girl lying half-naked on the tatami floor, it seemed that the undead warrior was talking to himself.

_Stop mucking about with that human and get moving! My prisoners are escaping, and you _will _pursue them!_

Cursing loudly, Onigumo dropped the knife which he had planned to use for cutting the wench's remaining clothes off and grabbed his pants from the floor. He fumbled with his belt and sheath, finally just yanking his sword out in frustration, then charged out of the room, leaving a very confused young woman behind to try and find her own way out of the citadel.

Sounga settled back on his throne, focusing his perceptions on one particular being, probing her thoughts, boring through her mental barriers, searching her puny human mind ...

As they rounded the corner, Saeko fell to the floor, clutching her head. Suddenly lacking her support, Totosai stumbled, and Hiromitsu had to grab hold of the older demon's waist to keep him upright. "Miss Saeko?" asked Myoga, "What's wrong?"

The pale young girl was trembling all over, her eyes shut. "It's Sounga!" she said. "He's trying to enter my thoughts! I can't hold out against him much longer!" Fighting the pain, Saeko pointed ahead. "Hiro, Totosai, just go straight! There should be a stable through those double doors. Just take the fastest horse there, then run as far as you can! Just get away from this place!"

"No way!" Hiromitsu said, taking hold of Saeko's shoulder. "You're coming with us!"

"You don't understand! If I go with you, Sounga will still be able to see my thoughts. He'll use me to track you both down and kill you! You have to leave me here!" Turning to Myoga, she said, "Go with them. You'll only get in trouble if you stay here with me."

Hiromitsu wanted to say that Saeko was wrong, that somehow they would be able to take her someplace Sounga could never reach them, but knew that he was just lying to himself. Though she still posessed her own soul, Saeko was one of the undead, resurrected by Sounga's power, and no matter how far the three of them ran, she would never really be free of him. While his and Totosai's bonds had been merely physical, Saeko was bound to Sounga by her very nature.

Hiromitsu let Totosai lean against a wall while he knealt down beside her. "I promise, Saeko, someday I'll come back for you. You saved our necks, and I'm not leaving you in the hands of that maniac Sounga!"

Saeko looked up at him, tears and raw pain in her sightless eyes. "Don't you see, Hiromitsu? I knew from the beginning that you would have to leave me behind." As Hiro's eyes went wide, she went on. "You got in trouble because I tried to use you to defeat Sounga, and I have to pay for that. You're a good person, Hiromitsu, and you deserve to be happy."

Hiro stood frozen to the spot, speechless. It was Totosai who finally snapped him out of his stupor, saying "She's right, boy! If we don't get going now, we'll _all _be killed! Saeko knew what she was doing when she sprung us from the dungeon. Now, let's take to our heels and get out of this place!"

"As much as it pains me to say so," added Myoga, now riding behind Hiro's right ear, "I have to agree with Totosai and Miss Saeko. Even if you did manage to take her away from this castle, she will never truly be free from Sounga's power. Our only chance now is to save ourselves!"

Taking one last look back at Saeko - crouched on the floor, clutching her head with her blind eyes squeezed tight - Hiromitsu wrapped an arm around Totosai's shoulders and helped the old man make his way toward the stable doors. Inside, the scent of animals was almost strong enough to overpower Sounga's pervasive miasma, but not quite. Strange, giant carrion crows fluttered about amongst the rafters, and Hiromitsu could sense their triple eyes watching them as he and Totosai made their way to the stalls. Several housed only the skeletal remains of horses, and one held the very same undead steed that Onigumo had ridden when he first captured Hiromitsu. Hiro, however, decided to pass up the giant warhorse - it, like Saeko, was tied to Sounga's will, and would probably cause more problems than even its lightning-fast hooves could solve. In the end, the only animal they could find that wasn't tainted by the Great Demon's evil was a strange, three-eyed cow in the pen closest to the outer doors. "Damn!" Hiro snarled, "How are we supposed to escape on this old cow!"

"I agree with Hiromitsu," Myoga chimed in. "We might as well just climb down the mountain ourselves, rather than waste time with that sorry excuse for a quadruped."

"Don't be fooled, Myoga," Totosai said, smiling for some mysterious reason, "not everything is just what it seems to be..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" snapped Hiro. "All I see is a broken-down old cow that looks like it's been starved half to death."

"That's what I mean," Totosai said, "It's not what you think."

Hiromitsu shook his head, sighing. He didn't like it, but this old thing was their only shot, and right now they needed all the help they could get. When he lifted Totosai up onto the creature's back, the cow didn't seem to mind, so Hiromitsu went and opened the outer doors. Outside the stable was a long, narrow path that spiraled down around the steep mountain on which Sounga's citadel was perched. Since Hiro's arrival, winter had set in, and there was a thick layer of snow on the ground. When the doors were open, Hiro climbed up and put a hand around the old man's waist.

The three-eyed cow didn't move.

"Come on!" Hiro yelled, "Move! Let's go!"

"That's no way to talk to a cow, boy," Totosai scolded him. Then he tapped the animal's sides gently with his heels. The cow plodded out of her stall and looked around. "Good girl, Momo!" Totosai said cheerfully, patting the back of the cow's head. "Now, let's head outside. I'll bet you there are whole fields of green grass once you come down off this mountain." As if she could understand him, "Momo" turned and walked purposefully through the stable doors. After another moment of looking around and sniffing the air, the old cow began trotting forward.

Straight off the edge of the narrow path.

"Hey, watch out!" Hiro exclaimed, "We're gonna fall off!"

"AAAHHH!" wailed Myoga. "Totosai, watch where you're going!"

"Don't worry, you two" Totosai said, laughing, "This is just where the fun begins!"

And then Momo walked right off the edge of the path.

As Myoga let out a tiny, high-pitched scream, Hiromitsu shut his eyes tight, waiting for the stomach-churning feeling of vertigo and the final agony as he, Totosai, Myoga and the stupid, stupid old cow they were riding hit the jagged rocks. When none of that happened, he opened his eyes slowly, blinking in confusion.

They were standing on thin air, just a few feet from the edge of the spiral path that wound around the mountain. Momo was flying!

As the initial shock wore off, Hiro found himself smiling. However Totosai had known this would happen, the old man had just found them the perfect way down off the mountain. Now they wouldn't have to worry about mucking around with the long, winding path; Momo could fly straight down, then take them wherever they wanted!

"Wahoo!" Hiro shouted. "Totosai, you're a genius!"

"I try," the old demon said, smiling modestly.

"Genius!" Myoga snapped. "We could have all been smushed! Next time, warn us before you pull a stunt like that!"

"Oh, pipe down, Myoga. We didn't fall, did we?"

"Well ... no. But we could have!"

Totosai shook his head, then turned to Hiromitsu. "You see what I've had to put up with for fifty years?"

It was sheer luck that Hiromitsu heard the wind whistling off to their left. As Momo turned north and started descending, Hiro turned back towards the citadel ...

Just as a huge black shape came sailing out through the stable doors, bounding into the air and knocking Hiromitsu right off the cow's back.

Hiro and the smelly, strangely slippery creature that had wrapped itself around him tumbled down roughly thirty feet. Hiromitsu managed to roll in such a way that the creature hit the rocky, snow-covered mountainside first, then they rolled down the steep slope, separating as the creature's grip loosened, weakened by the shock of their fall. Finally, Hiro stopped his rolling and brought himself up into a standing position, facing the "creature" as it did the same - and revealed itself to be Onigumo, clad only in long, baggy white pants, with his huge black iron scimitar clutched tightly in his right hand, a deranged grin on his bruised-looking undead face. "Well, well, well!" Sounga's chief enforcer exclaimed, "Lookee what I've got here! The little doggie-demon, still too stupid to know when he's beat!"

Hiro bared his teeth as Onigumo twirled his sword menacingly, showing off his skill and strength before moving in for the kill. Hiromitsu, however, had no intention of giving the living dead man the first move. Roaring with a pent-up rage born of months of beatings and humiliation, he charged Onigumo, his claws hooked into flesh-ripping talons, all his senses sharpened to a knife-edge. The undead warrior brought his sword up in a defensive blocking slash, but Hiro was faster than any rotting corpse, and sidestepped the ebon blade as he gave Onigumo a solid punch in the face.

Which knocked the dead man's head right off! Onigumo's shaggy, bearded head went spinning away, landing in the snow and staining it blue-black with his inhuman ichor. His decapitated torso jerked once, then dropped like a stone right in front of Hiromitsu, still clutching his sword in a death-grip.

Hiro stopped cold, his mouth slack, staring in disbelief. Could that really have been it? That had been _way _too easy...

And then Onigumo's severed head opened its eyes, smiling crazily once again. "Whoo! That was one hell of a punch, kid ... but you'll have to do better than that if you wanna beat me!" Hiromitsu just barely avoided a quick sweep by Onigumo's right leg, which had suddenly gone from rigor mortis to hideous, inhumanly swift life. As he backpedaled, feeling as though his heart had just jumped up into his throat, Hiro watched the undead warrior's body get to its feet and walk over to its disembodied head, then lift that head up by the hair and plop it back onto its neck with a horrible sucking sound. Instantly, any trace of a wound disappeared as head and neck seemed to melt back together, leaving a single warrior standing on the snow once again, sword in hand, grinning from ear to ear as though nothing had happened.

_Damn_! Hiromitsu thought, _How do you kill somebody who's already dead?_

Onigumo advanced on him, bringing that enormous scimitar up over his head in preparation for a killing stroke. Before he could bring it down, however, Hiro charged him again, aiming to rip a healthy chunk from his chest, but this time, Onigumo compensated for having his hands full by attacking with his feet; as Hiromitsu came within range, Onigumo brought his left foot up, hitting the young demon in the gut and knocking him sideways, landing on his back. Onigumo gave a guttural laugh of triumph and jumped right on top of the boy, holding him in place with one foot on his chest, raising his black iron sword again to deliver the final blow. "Sayonara, kid!" he said gleefully ...

Just as Totosai hit the giant warrior in the back with a jet of red-hot fire, instantly igniting his undead flesh. Onigumo's expression shifted from one of mad, triumphant joy to one of shock and pain. He dropped his sword, slapping frantically at his back in an attempt to smother the flames, but the fire moved across his greasy skin like a living thing, searching and hungry for more. Screaming, Onigumo fell to the ground and started rolling himself in the snow, but the meltwater only made the grease-fire blaze more fiercely. As Hiro watched in spellbound silence, Onigumo, the most fearsome warrior the world had ever seen, was reduced to a pile of bones and seared, rotten-smelling flesh, still screaming and flailing as his soul - forever chained to his body by his master's power - continued to feel an agony that should have killed a living man in seconds.

After more than a century of rampaging across the countryside, torturing and killing thousands of innocent people, Onigumo had finally found his own personal Hell.

"Come on, boy!" shouted Totosai, and Hiromitsu leaped up onto Momo's back as the four of them sailed off into the morning, leaving Sounga's citadel far behind.

-----

Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Character Design

Technically, the only new "character" in this chapter is Momo, Totosai's beloved three-eyed flying cow. We also encounter a few mutated carrion crows in the stable, one of whose brethren might cause Kagome some trouble four hundred years from now...

-Plot Development

This chapter is mostly meant to kick-start the action after the info-packed but slow-going fourth chapter, and to get the plot moving again. There's a dramatic escape, some pyrotechnics courtesy of Totosai, and a brief fight.

Most importantly, though, there's the sentimental scene in which Saeko tells Hiro to leave her behind. It elevates Hiro's quest from a simple desire for vengeance into a commitment to help someone else, making him more selfless and, thus, heroic.

Also in this chapter, Onigumo's perverted practices finally catch up with him. Because he's busy trying to rape a kidnapped woman, he doesn't have time to put on his armor, and is thus unprotected when Totosai finally gives him his long-overdue "reward" for more than a hundred years of service to Sounga. We also learn that Sounga's undead troopers are vulnerable to fire - as Onigumo discovers the hard way - and that losing his soldiers does hurt Sounga mentally, two key facts that will show up later in the story.

Finally, as those of you who read the first draft may recall, I completely forgot about Myoga when I first posted this chapter, so he didn't actually escape with Hiro and Totosai. I considered having him simply pop up at the end of Chapter X, having hidden himself on Hiro's person during the jailbreak, but since it seemed ridiculously convenient for me and out of character for Myoga - especially since he would be "reappearing" after five chapters and months of story time - I wound up rewriting chapters V through IX to fit him back into the story. For a little guy, he sure caused me a lot of trouble!

-Fight Choreography

Hiro and Onigumo's second fight is pretty similar to their first one. Hiro is still inexperienced and dependent on his natural abilities. However, he's also been beat up on a more-or-less daily basis by Onigumo, so his pent-up rage allows him to do significantly more damage this time around. Unfortunately, Onigumo still has overwhelming advantages in strength, skill and toughness, and very nearly kills Hiromitsu anyway. It again reinforces the fact that Hiro isn't perfect, and that he'll need to show some major improvement before he tries taking on Sounga himself.

Of course, Totosai's approach to fighting is obvious: Deep-fry your enemies!

-----


	6. Village of the Demon Slayers

Chapter VI:

Village of the Demon-Slayers

-----

Hiromitsu had never seen winter snow from the air before. He could jump high and far, but now, flying on Momo's back behind Totosai, with Myoga riding on his shoulder, he had a bird's eye view for dozens of miles around. Watching the sunlight sparkle on the snow-covered land, Hiro thought that it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Once, as they passed over a woodland forest, he saw the new-fallen snow sparkling like diamonds on the tree branches, and the sight moved him to tears. It was the very same forest where he had left Midoriko and his other friends to fend for themselves as he had dashed off to fight Onigumo, never suspecting that the undead warrior - now little more than a pile of ashes on a distant mountainside - would be able to capture him, nor that he would spend more than two months chained in a cold, dark dungeon in the castle of the Great Demon Sounga.

And Hiro had never imagined that he would meet Saeko, the eerily beautiful, undead blind girl with visions of Sounga's defeat - visions in which a shape-shifting dog-demon with Hiromitsu's name killed the Great Demon with a pair of magic swords. Though he had already tried to fight Sounga, and had lost miserably, a part of him still wondered if he might not really be the one to bring that heartless monster down. It had been Sounga and his army of living dead who had orphaned his friends, slaughtering their parents to scare the neighboring villages and keep them under Sounga's thumb. If there was any way he could bring the Great Demon to justice and avenge his friends' suffering - to say nothing of his own - then he wanted to do something about it.

"Hey, Totosai, where are we headed?" he asked. The old, emaciated-looking demon turned to make eye contact, still keeping his hands on the reins. "I was thinking of that village I told you about, where I used to work as a blacksmith for a clan of demon-slayers. It's only a few minutes' flying from here."

"Excellent!" said Myoga. "If there's one place we'll be safe, it's in a village full of warriors who know how to fight evil demons and the living dead."

Hiro nodded, but his mind was elsewhere. If the village of the demon-slayers was so close, then Midoriko and the others could easily have made it there before winter had set in. If they had kept heading north after he had left them, and if they had had the courage or desperation to actually approach the villagers, then just maybe ...

As they approached, Hiromitsu got his first good look at the village. Though there were huge fields of farmland beyond the village proper, the town itself was a small village in the shape of a rectangle. Around the perimeter stood a high wall made of tree trunks tied together with thick ropes made from some sort of animal hide, with a walkway behind their sharpened tops that offered archers an excellent lookout and shooting position. On three of its sides, the ground beyond the wall dropped away, creating a sheer cliff, and the one path to the main gate was a steep downhill slope. Hiro could understand, now, how these people had successfully repelled so many attacks by Sounga's armies; their village was an almost perfect fortress, occupying the high ground, with strong walls and only one, easily defensible way to approach it. Even as they came in for landing, Hiro saw movement on the upper catwalk, and by the time they had touched down, there was already a small contingent of warriors waiting outside the gate, carrying bows, swords and pole-arms, and at least one with some sort of large, curved weapon made from a giant demon's rib.

As he and Totosai dismounted, an old man came down the slope toward them, leaning on a thick walking staff and flanked by two tall, well-armed warriors with their black hair tied into topknots. "Ho, strangers!" he called. "What brings you to our humble village? If you two demons are in the service of Sounga, I feel compelled to warn you that my people have been well-trained to battle the Great Demon and his minions. So, if you came looking to start a fight, I would advise you to return to your master and risk his wrath, or you will surely face ours!"

"Hey! What do you mean, 'two demons'?" exclaimed Myoga. "I'll have you know that I happen to be the oldest, wisest living demon east of the continent!"

"If you're so smart," hissed Hiromitsu, "then how come you don't know when to keep your mouth shut?"

WHAP!

"Mmph! Smushed again!" groaned a now-flattened little flea demon.

Totosai's brow furrowed, and he peered curiously at the old man. "Kaoru?" he asked, "Is that you, my old friend?" The elderly man stopped in his tracks, and his eyes widened in shock. "Totosai?" "Ha ha! It is you, Kaoru!" proclaimed the wizened old demon, and bent down to shake the man's hand as the two burly guards exchanged looks of total confusion. "My goodness! It's been so long, I thought that I'd never see you again!" As Hiromitsu looked on, the village elder's face transformed miraculously as his jaded, distrustful expression gave way to an almost childlike jubilation, and Hiro could have sworn that the man had just turned at least thirty years younger.

Totosai and Kaoru embraced like a pair of old friends, and Kaoru's guards turned to regard Hiromitsu. "Sir," one of them asked, "what about that one over there? Is he a friend of yours, as well?" "No," Totosai said, "that's Hiromitsu. He's the one that helped spring me from Sounga's dungeon, and he's one heck of a good fighter, too. He even managed to give that monster Onigumo a good thrashing!" Hiro was amazed at such high praise; true, he had helped carry Totosai to the stable where they had found Momo, but it had been Saeko who had helped free them both from their enchanted manacles in the dungeon, and Totosai himself had fried the mighty warrior Onigumo to a crisp when the undead butcher had been about to slice Hiro in two. As far as Hiro was concerned, he hadn't really done much during the escape, and was actually a bit embarassed that Totosai was giving him so much credit. The guards, however, seemed to accept Totosai's testimony, and both sheathed their swords, nodding at Hiromitsu.

"Well, come with me, then!" Kaoru exclaimed, turning back toward the main gate and motioning for Totosai and Hiro to follow him. "I must admit, my old friend, that you've become something of a legend these days. About half of the weapons that we still use and train with today are among those that you forged for us all those years ago."

"Really? I'm amazed you haven't found someone better by now. What about my apprentice, Pazu? Even when I was here, he was well on his way to becoming a great smith himself."

"Well, actually, Pazu _was _our blacksmith for a time, but he's since passed on. Our current blacksmith and master armorer is his successor, Shigeyuki."

"Shigeyuki? You don't mean that little boy who always kept getting in trouble, I hope?"

"The very same," Kaoru said, nodding, "and while I'm pleased to say he's matured quite a bit, I'm afraid that he isn't nearly as skilled as either you or Pazu. He does his best to live up to your reputation, but frankly, I think he'll be happy to have a chance to learn from you, old friend."

Hiromitsu lost track of the old men's conversation - not because he wasn't interested, but because he suddenly caught sight of a girl with light brown hair trying to push her way through the crowd at the gate. Without thinking, Hiro leaped right over the old-timers and the two guards, then dashed straight toward the startled villagers. Many of them looked terrified at the young demon's approach, some tried to run back through the gate, and a few even drew weapons, but even as they all backed away, the girl ran forward, a hopeful look on her face. "Midoriko?" Hiro called, hardly daring to hope.

"Hiro!" Midoriko shouted, her face lighting up as the two ran towards each other, finally wrapping their arms around one another as the villagers - and quite a few of Hiromitsu's childhood friends - looked on, amazed. "We thought you were dead," Midoriko said as they separated. "We all saw that big monster on horseback beat you up, and when they tied you to his saddle, we thought you'd been killed."

"Yeah, well, he almost did kill me - twice!" Hiro said. "If it weren't for Totosai --"

"And me!" added Myoga, all four of his arms folded across his chest.

"-- I'd still be stuck in a dungeon. I'm just glad to see that you and the others are all right."

"We came here after the first frost killed off all the edible plants. The villagers say that we can stay as long as we want. Oh, Hiro, it's just like being back home again!" They embraced once more, tears of joy running down both their faces. Finally, they were all together again, and for the first time Hiromitsu could remember, he had a place that he, too, could call a home.

As Totosai and old Kaoru came up the path, Hiro and Midoriko rejoined them, and all four of them began talking, sharing stories and laughing with the joy that only long-separated friends can know. As they were about to cross the threshold into the walled village, Hiro turned to Totosai and said, "Say, do you remember what you told me before? About how you would make two magic swords for me if we ever escaped?"

Totosai smacked himself on the forehead and exclaimed, "Oh, of course! I almost forgot all about that! Thanks for reminding me, boy! I'll get right on it."

"Magic swords? Hiro, what are you two talking about?"

"Um, well, it's kind of a long story..."

-----

Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Character Design

In this chapter, we meet the demon-slayers themselves. Their leader, Kaoru, is a typical old wise man; he doesn't have much physical presence, he relies on bodyguards for self-defense, but he's got a strong and charismatic personality. He's also the "key" that grants Totosai and Hiro the opportunity to join up with the demon-slayers, so he's got a close friendship with Totosai.

-Plot Development

Because Hiro's lack of experience has been pointed out time and again, he needs some opportunity to develop as a warrior, and the village of the demon-slayers is it. It's also where he reunites with Midoriko, starting a romance that will continue for the next three stories.

-----


	7. Tenseiga and Tetsusaiga

Chapter VII:

Tenseiga and Tetsusaiga:

The Sword of Heaven and the Guardian of Men

-----

Hiromitsu walked into Totosai's workshop, his red-and-white kimono fluttering in the winter breeze. It had been three weeks since they had arrived in the village of the demon-slayers, and for all that time, Totosai had been working off-and-on on the two magic swords he had promised to the young man. The previous evening, Shigeyuki, Totosai's assistant, had told Hiro that they would finally be ready in the morning.

Hiro, too, had also been keeping himself busy. After two long months chained in the dungeon of the Great Demon Sounga's mountain citadel, he had had a lot of catching up to do with his friends, a group of children who had been orphaned when Sounga's army of undead soldiers had killed off their parents in a ruthless display of force. Having found their way to the village some time before his arrival, the children were all adapting very well to their new surroundings. Many had even been adopted by families within the village, and the new arrivals were praised as a blessing by the local citizens. Some of the older children were also being trained in the fine art of battling supernatural monsters, particularly the living dead that Sounga seemed to favor as frontline troops and skirmishers.

Among these was Midoriko, the oldest of Hiromitsu's friends - and perhaps something more, as well. Ever since their reunion, the two had been inseparable, and ever since Midoriko had volunteered to become an apprentice swordswoman, Hiromitsu had made a point of always practicing at her side, and the two of them were becoming able warriors. Sometimes, they would walk just outside the village gates - with the guards' permission, of course - and sit on the grassy hill leading up to the town wall, just talking and staring up at the clouds, with Midoriko cradling her baby brother, Masuo, as they drank in the beautiful winter landscape. It was the best, most peaceful time in Hiro's life, and he wouldn't have traded his time with Midoriko for all the gold and treasures in the world.

Now, as he walked into Totosai's smoky blacksmithing shop, Hiromitsu's thoughts were drawn to another, stranger girl he had met during his time as Sounga's prisoner: Saeko, the blind, undead seer who had told him of her visions about Sounga's downfall, and about how he, Hiromitsu, would be the one to finally slay the evil Great Demon with a pair of magic swords. Although neither he nor Totosai were quite sure that Saeko's predictions had been accurate - he had already fought Sounga once, and had lost badly - they had both agreed that, on the off chance that she had been right, Totosai should take two of Hiromitsu's fangs and use them to help create a pair of unique weapons for him. Hiro's canine teeth had since grown back, but he still thought constantly about what they were being used for.

As he approached, Totosai looked up from his anvil, a long-handled hammer in hand, covered in soot and smiling broadly. "Ah, Hiromitsu!" he said, clapping the younger demon on the shoulder, "It's good to see you, boy!" By now, the old fire-demon had put on some much-needed weight and muscle, though he still resembled a child's stick-figure. He had also cut his iron-gray hair and tied it into a topknot. The overall effect was that he looked years younger and in much better health.

He led Hiro over to a rack on one of the walls, where two swords hung in their sheaths. Picking up one of them, Totosai held it out to Hiro with the hilt facing the young man. "This was the first one I made for you. It's designed primarily for defense; while it cuts like any other sword, it can also put up a barrier strong enough to block just about anything, and can be used to heal even fatal injuries."

"How can a sword heal people?" Hiro said skeptically, drawing the weapon from its sheath and examining the long, slim, normal-looking blade. "I thought they could only be used for fighting."

"Not exactly," relplied Totosai. "In the case of a normal steel blade, you'd be right, but you have to remember that this sword is made with a part of your body, so it will respond to your will. Just focus some of your own life force through it, and this sword will heal any wound, and can even resurrect a person if their soul is still present within their body."

Hiro was appalled. "You mean, this thing could turn corpses into the living dead, just like Sounga's sword?"

"No, no! Nothing like that! If you bring someone back to life with _this _sword, they'll be completely healed, without becoming undead creatures. In fact, this blade can completely destroy the living dead, freeing their souls and returning their bodies to a lifeless state."

Hiro sighed with relief. "So, what do you call it?" he asked.

"Its name is Tenseiga, the Sword of Heaven," Totosai said. "Just as Sounga's blade is made from the fang of a demon dragon and possesses power over the underworld, the Tenseiga represents positive energy, and draws its power from both its wielder and from those who share an emotional bond with him."

Hiromitsu hefted the Tenseiga, now filled with a new respect for the exquisite weapon. It was perfectly balanced, and as Hiro followed Totosai's instructions and directed a small measure of his energy through it, the blade actually began to _glow_, giving off a bright, blue-white light. "Wow," he said, wide-eyed with awe, "this will be perfect against Sounga's army. No wonder he had you locked up in that dungeon; if you had made a dozen of these, all the undead soldiers in the world would be totally useless."

"Actually, it has more to do with your natural ability," Totosai replied. "It's only because your life energy is so strong that the Tenseiga has so much power to draw upon, and that's the only reason I could give it all the capabilities it's got. Even with that tiny tooth you gave me, there's enough power in the sword itself to save a hundred men or slay a hundred undead warriors with one Dragon Strike attack, and in your hands, it'll be even stronger."

"Dragon Strike attack?"

"Yes, that's what I call it when you channel as much power through the blade as it will take and unleash it all at once. It will only stun humans or other living creatures, but it can do some serious damage against evil spirits or the living dead."

As Hiromitsu sheathed the Tenseiga, Totosai picked up the second sword and held it out to him, as well. "Now," he said, "this sword is strictly an offensive weapon, in case you actually have to face Sounga or other living beings in combat. Be careful as you pull it out, though; the blade is bigger than you'd think from looking at its sheath."

As Hiromitsu was trying to figure out what Totosai meant, he drew the sword - and nearly fell over as a huge blade almost a foot wide and five feet long emerged from the sheath, glowing with golden energy. "Whoa!" he exclaimed. "Totosai, what the heck is it?"

"This is the Tetsusaiga, the Guardian of Men," Totosai replied proudly, "and the most powerful weapon I've ever had the opportunity to work on. It requires more life force from its owner than the Tenseiga, but its attacks are far more powerful. It draws on its user's raw emotional energy, then channels and amplifies it. Its size when unsheathed is dependent on how much available energy the wielder has, and in your case, that's a lot. It has two main attacks: Wind Scar, which releases your energy directly at an opponent; and Backlash Wave, which can send the energy of an opponent's attack right back at them, with a little something extra."

"This is incredible!" Hiromitsu said, placing a second hand on the Tetsusaiga's long handle. When he lifted the blade, he discovered that it was much lighter than it looked at first glance, though its sheer size still made it unwieldy. Even so, after moving the sword through a few simple exercises, Hiro found that he could control the giant blade like an extension of his own body - which, in a way, it was. And he could actually _feel _the power of this sword in his hands, pulsing like a living thing, ready to be used if necessary.

"Oh, by the way," Totosai said, "both of the sheaths can create a protective barrier. I also put sealing charms on both swords. They can only be used by you or a close blood relative, so Sounga won't be able to use them against you. And, if everything works as I think it should, the positive aura those swords put out should take some of the sting out of Sounga's attacks. 'Course, it also works the other way around, so you'd be better off using both swords at once if you have to come up against him, or Sounga's negative energy might weaken your own attacks, as well."

"Wow!" Hiromitsu said, placing the Tetsusaiga back in its modest-looking sheath, watching as the enormous sword actually shrank back down to fit inside it. "Totosai, these are perfect! Thank you!"

"Just don't get cocky, boy. I still don't know how effective their aura will be or whether either one is a match for Sounga's blade, so let's hope we never get into a situation where you have to find out."

Hiro wanted to agree with Totosai's sentiment, but the truth was that a part of him wanted to fight the Great Demon. Heck, _somebody _had to do it, or else Sounga would just keep right on killing people, ruling the eastern islands with a heart devoid of mercy or compassion. He had already caused immeasurable suffering, and deep down, Hiromitsu wanted to be the one to knock the big, ugly creep down a few pegs.

Tying the two swords to his waist, he bowed deeply to Totosai, then walked back out through the door of the workshop, passing Shigeyuki on the way out. He had been planning to spend some time with Midoriko on the training field at the center of town, but having seen and felt the power of Totosai's new swords, he had a feeling that using them anywhere inside the village was much too dangerous. He got permission from the sentries, then ran out through the town gate, with one particular field already in mind.

He had some _serious _practicing to do...

-----

Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Character Design

At last, we see Hiromitsu in his trademark white-and-red kimono! Everyone knows his legendary magic swords, Tenseiga and Tetsusaiga, and in this chapter, Hiro finally gets them, taking him one big step closer to becoming the Great Dog-Demon we're familiar with.

Also, we see Totosai in the form he'll stay in for the next four centuries: an old, thin fire-demon with a mustauche and topknot, wielding a long-handled hammer.

-Plot Development

This is pretty much another chapter of exposition, laying down the rules by which Hiro's swords operate. It also shows his progression from the brash young fighter he was at the beginning of the story into a serious warrior. He's becoming less of a loner and more of a contributing member of society, which will eventually develop into a full-fledged leadership role in later stories.

-----


	8. Sounga's Challenge

Chapter VIII:

Sounga's Challenge

-----

"WENCH!" Sounga roared with fury, giving Saeko a vicious backhand across her cheek with his spiked gauntlet. "How _dare _you defy me? Me, the one who gave you life!"

"You didn't give me life; my mother and father did that," Saeko spat, "and then you took it away, turning me into this undead ... _thing_! I never asked for your 'kindness', you monster!"

"SHUT UP!" Sounga moved to give the blind girl a hard kick in her already-bleeding face, but Saeko heard his foot coming and just barely managed to dodge the Great Demon's attack, rolling on the floor, then rising to her feet and bolting, desperately trying to escape through the door of the throne room.

Before she could make it, though, two of Sounga's soulless undead soldiers were already blocking her path. As Saeko stopped just short of the entryway, one of the soldiers caught her wrist and spun her around, pushing her back towards the furious Great Demon, who grabbed her shoulders and threw her to the floor. "You ungrateful little brat! I should have let you bleed to death on the floor, sent your worthless soul straight down to the underworld, then thrown your body into an open grave to watch it rot! You freed three of my prisoners and challenged my will, and for that, I will see you suffer!"

"How so, Great Demon?" Saeko replied bitterly. "I'm already undead. Even if you cut me in quarters, I wouldn't die, and it wouldn't even hurt for long. You can't kill me, and thanks to you, my soul will never leave my body."

"Oh, really?" Sounga said, a diabolical grin on his face. "I would advise you to reconsider your assertions, in light of _this_!"

As he spoke, Saeko felt her right hand go numb, then cried out as everything below her wrist suddenly turned to dust and crumbled to the floor. "Remember, girl," Sounga hissed, bending down to Saeko's eye level as the helpless girl clutched at the stump of her wrist, "you exist solely by my suffrance. It was I who resurrected your body, and it is I who have allowed your soul to remain within it, rather than simply sending you straight to the underworld as I should have done when I first slew you. But I can still choose to undo that which I have done. Who knows? Maybe I should simply send your spirit to the nether realm and allow your body to ... serve me here. I must admit, I am somewhat curious to see what it would feel like to have my way with one of my own puppets."

"You really are sick, Sounga," said Saeko, "and when Hiromitsu destroys you, even if you cast me into the underworld, I'll still watch it happen, and all the innocent people whose souls you've already sent there will celebrate your death with me."

"FOOL! I have already beaten that weak, pathetic mongrel! I have defeated your pet dog-demon, and now even Fate itself cannot touch me!"

"Are you really so sure? Then why do I hear fear in your voice, Sounga?"

Sounga let out an inarticulate snarl. Damn the blind wench's ears! No mortal could possibly understand his infinite, all-knowing mind, and yet she dared to try and peer into his very heart! At his mental command, the rest of Saeko's arm shriveled and dropped to the floor, but even though she cried out from the pain, the girl still managed to hold the Great Demon's eyes with her own sightless, eerily direct gaze. "Hurting me isn't going to help you, Sounga. Sooner or later, your own cruelty is going to come right back on your head, and when it does, I can promise that not one tear will be shed for your passing."

Sounga roared with mingled fury and frustration, drawing back his fist to shatter Saeko's skull and finish what he had begun all those months ago. Then he stopped, let his hand drop to his side, and kneeled down, cupping the girl's trembling chin in his palm. Suddenly, Saeko felt a sharp pain in her head, and jerked away from the Great Demon's touch. But the pain continued, and she realized with horror that Sounga was already inside her head, penetrating her very thoughts, ripping into her mind in a form of torture that would have made physical rape look like a loving caress by comparison. Saeko screamed, clutching her throbbing head as horrible images assaulted her mind - images that her blind eyes had never seen, but which Sounga was feeding directly into her consciousness from his own vast library of evil deeds. "Get out! Get OUT! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" she wailed, but her screams only encouraged Sounga, and now she began to _feel _things, terrible things. She was burning like a living, screaming torch; she was being torn limb fom limb, even though she knew that Sounga had only taken her arm, and that the pain from it was already fading; she felt thousands of tiny knives sliding across her body, slowly, inexorably flaying flesh from bones as she writhed, helpless, on the floor.

After several minutes of this, Sounga decided that he was getting bored with the girl's hysterics, and withdrew from her bruised and battered mind, leaving Saeko curled on the floor in a fetal position, physically intact but for her missing arm, her blind eyes wide with shock and primal terror. "Let that be a lesson to you, wench: such is the fate of all who oppose my will. You belong to me, and soon, so shall this entire world." He could feel a retort forming in Saeko's mind, but then her entire body convulsed as she thought of just what else Sounga might do if she resisted him any more. Satisfied, Sounga called in his soulless bodyguards and had them carry Saeko out of the room, still shaking like a leaf.

Sounga leaned back on his throne and considered what he had seen in Saeko's thoughts. Even as he had been importing his own cocktail of traumatic experiences, he had also peered into the girl's psyche, and had uncovered several interesting bits of information. For one thing, he had felt - but not seen, of course - the tenderness which Saeko had shown to the young dog-demon Hiromitsu, and the tenderness that the boy had shown her in return. One conversation, in particular, had caught his attention:

---"No way!" Hiromitsu said, taking hold of Saeko's shoulder. "You're coming with us!"

---"You don't understand! If I go with you, Sounga will still be able to see my thoughts. He'll use me to track you both down and kill you! You have to leave me here!"

---Hiromitsu let Totosai lean against a wall while he knealt down beside her. "I promise, Saeko, someday I'll come back for you. You saved our necks, and I'm not leaving you in the hands of that maniac Sounga!"

Sounga opened his eyes and twisted his face into a grim, hate-filled smile. So _that _was the boy's weakness! He had compassion for others, even weak, pathetic little creatures like Saeko! As much as Sounga hated to admit it, the blind seer had hit one nail right on the head: he _was _concerned about the boy's escape, especially since the young demon fit exactly with Saeko's description of the dog-demon who was supposedly fated to destroy him. Now, however, he had found a fatal flaw in the boy's heart - a flaw that Sounga could very easily exploit.

Sounga stood, then crossed the room and walked out through the door. Opposite Sounga's throne room was a wide balcony that jutted out from the side of his mountain citadel. In the light of the waning crescent moon, the Great Demon could see for hundreds of miles around. Surrounding the mountain was a blasted, blighted landscape; Sounga's very aura had long ago killed off every plant species in the area, even the hardiest of lichens, and the local animal life had long since fled, seeking better grazing and hunting grounds. Now the land surrounding his mountain retreat was nothing but an expansive graveyard, with Sounga himself the only living thing upon the face of it.

The Great Demon drew his sword, holding it before him. The adamantine blade gleamed like highly polished silver in the moonlight. Long ago, when he had still been living in exile in the underworld, Sounga had forged the weapon using one of his own fangs, placing a small fragment of his life force within it. Then he had used his new mystic blade to tear open a portal into this world of mortals and living creatures, emerging into a realm which, with all his power, he had believed that he could easily conquer and control.

Since then, however, he had discovered that not all the creatures of this universe were as helpless as he had expected. Humans, in particular, had proven most resistant to his rule. Though physically frail in and of themselves, they were dangerously unpredictable. Their ingenuity and tenacity made them extremely effective combatants, and when they or those close to them were threatened, their strength and toughness seemed to increase multifold. As soon as he had arrived, the puny mortals had immediately begun developing methods to defend themselves: flaming arrows to incinerate his undead troops; long pole-arms and swords to extend their reach in close-quarters combat; and ultimately, enchanted weapons capable of channeling their wielders' life energy, clearly inspired by Sounga's own blade.

One particular band of humans had proven especially adept at fighting off Sounga's minions. They lived in a fortified village far north of the citadel, an entire community of farmers who had also mastered the art of battling and destroying supernatural beings. Though the Great Demon had sent his armies against these demon-slayers time and again, they had so far managed to repel his living-dead troops each time.

Sounga considered this for a moment. Now that the young dog-demon and that wretched old fire-demon Totosai had escaped, their most likely objective would be to locate a place where they felt safe, far from Sounga's stronghold ... and where could they be safer than in an entire town full of distinguished warriors? Totosai, in fact, had once worked as a blacksmith in that very same village, and had forged many powerful weapons for them - including quite a few with magical properties. Even on the slim chance that he and the boy were trying to bring Saeko's prophecy to pass, then the only logical place for them to go would be the village of the demon-slayers, where Totosai would have ready access to the tools of his trade and where Hiromitsu might acquire the training needed to wield the two magic swords from the blind girl's vision.

Sounga scowled at the thought. It had taken him more than three centuries to complete his conquest of all the islands east of the continent, which he planned to use as a springboard for his ultimate domination of this entire world. The very idea that all his achievements, all his long years of calculated violence might be brought to nothing by a seventeen-year-old boy wasn't just troubling; it was _insulting_. Sounga would crush the little brat himself - publicly, brutally, so as to leave no question in anyone's mind as to who called the shots in this land. Then, once that was done, he would have beaten even Destiny itself, and the rest of this universe would be his to rule for all eternity.

Sounga raised his demon sword into the chill air. As he channeled his power through the blade, the crystal orb mounted in its pommel began to glow with a fierce pink light, and the blade itself burned with dark energy. "FALLEN SOLDIERS ALL!" he cried, "RISE FROM THE DEAD!" As he spoke, the long, wickedly curved blade of his weapon dimmed ... then began to drip with a viscous red liquid. This was the blood of every living being Sounga had slain in his long career of murder and atrocity, which his sword had drunk eagerly, storing it, saving the lifeblood of its victims for later use. Now, Sounga unleashed the stolen fluid in a cascade that ran down from the balcony, dripping along the timbers of his citadel, flowing down among the steep crags of the mountainside, covering the entire mountain in a sea of blood.

And then that sea began to _move _...

Slowly, shapes began to form themselves out of the streaming gore. They resembled humans clad in heavy plate armor: the reanimated corpses of fishermen, farmers, warriors, whole towns full of innocent people, their souls already consigned unfairly to the underworld by Sounga's will. All moved with the clumsy slowness of badly-controlled marrionettes; lacking wills of their own, the living dead relied on Sounga to give them direction, and with so many to control, even the Great Demon's considerable mental might could only do so much. Still, with the sheer number of undead at his command, Sounga would easily be able to overwhelm the demon-slayers of the northern village, finally crushing that last pocket of resistance. And, of course, such an army would be more than a match for young Hiromitsu; with any luck, the runt would be reduced to a battered wreck by the time Sounga reached him, making it that much easier for the Great Demon to rip him apart with his own hands. Without a word, the entire grisly legion began descending the mountain slopes, forming up into columns of a thousand each on the flat plain below.

_And now_, Sounga thought, _for the final touch... _At his unspoken command, his two undead bodyguards walked out onto the balcony, carrying an unconscious Saeko, now chained to a heavy wooden rack. Sounga smiled with satisfaction. If he had gone into battle with just an army of monsters, Hiromitsu might have simply decided to turn tail and run away, as any sensible being would do. However, with the pitiful, helpless young blind girl in tow, Sounga could be sure that Hiromitsu's compassion would drive the boy right to him ... and, ultimately, to his doom.

Summoned by the Great Demon's will, an enormous corpse-dragon flew right up in front of the citadel, landing with its broad, scale-covered back on a level with the balcony. Still smiling, Sounga mounted the great beast as his minions tied Saeko's rack to it. Then he grabbed a handful of the creature's long, greasy mane and tugged on it like a set of reins. The reanimated monster ascended on wings of rotten flesh and soared off into the night, carrying Sounga and his hostage down to lead his army.

Midoriko looked on as Hiromitsu let loose another Wind Scar attack, carving a deep furrow nearly half a mile long through the snowy field. Ever since he had received his two mystic swords from Totosai, the old fire-demon who now served as the town blacksmith, Hiro had been practicing with them every day. While Midoriko still sparred with the other apprentice warriors on the practice field within the village walls, she often came out to watch Hiro sharpen his skills, carrying her baby brother Masuo.

Even after several weeks, it still surprised her that Hiromitsu had so much power stored up inside him. Having spent more than a year living in the woods with Hiro and a band of other ophans, she still thought of the young demon as just another kid. She knew, of course, that he wasn't human - his golden eyes, long white hair and the blue stripes on his skin made that pretty obvious - but nonetheless, Hiromitsu was just a very good friend as far as Midoriko was concerned.

Well, maybe a little more than just a friend ...

Hiro sheathed the enormous Tetsusaiga, shining with sweat, grinning like a cheshire cat as he walked over to her, pointing back toward the scarred landscape. "Did you see that?" he said, "That's the best attack I've ever made! Just look at that ditch!"

Midoriko raised an eyebrow. "Well, it _was _pretty neat to watch," she admitted, "but can you actually use it to hit anything? I mean, your range is great, but I don't know about your accuracy. No matter how far your Wind Scar can go, you're just pouring a lot of life energy into a wasted attack if you can't hit your target." She stood up, gently setting Masuo down on a blanket, picking up a stick as she went. Midoriko walked about a hundred feet from where Hiromitsu was standing, then stuck the dry twig upright in the snow. "There!" she said. "See if you can hit that stick, Hiro."

Hiro nodded. "Okay, Midoriko," he said, drawing the Tetsusaiga back out. "Just stand back. WIND SCAR!" Hiro focused his emotional energy through the Tetsusaiga's five-foot-long blade, then made a swift, slashing motion, sending forth a blast of golden energy. For a moment, he thought that his attack really would hit the stick, but after a moment, he realized that the blast was going to miss its target by a good twenty feet or so - and that it was headed straight for Midoriko! "NO!" he cried. "Midoriko, LOOK OUT!" As she turned toward him, uncomprehending, the Wind Scar lost its cohesion in a massive explosion barely five feet away from her. Midoriko was tossed high into the air, flailing helplessly as Hiromitsu dropped his sword and dashed toward her with superhuman speed, catching Midoriko in his arms and breaking her fall with his own body.

For a long, breathless moment, the two of them lay there, hardly daring to move, with Midoriko directly on top of Hiromitsu, their faces less than an inch apart. This close up, Hiro could feel her shoulder-length brown hair brushing against his cheek, and he could smell her fresh, vibrant scent. Finally, the girl spoke. "Hiromitsu..."

"Y-yes?" Hiro said, suddenly very aware that their chests were touching, and that Midoriko was less a girl than a young woman.

Then she brought a finger up and flicked it at the tip of his sensitive nose, giving him a wry smile. "I think your aim could use a little work."

Red as a beet, Hiro sat bolt upright, letting Midoriko roll off of him. "I ... um, yeah, I think you're right." Walking quickly, he went and retrieved the stick. "Well, it looks like I need to do some major target practice now. That was _way _too close for comfort."

"Was it really?" Midoriko asked innocently and elbowed the tall, white-haired boy in the ribs. Hiro groaned, rolling his eyes, then replaced the twig and backed away, picking the Tetsusaiga up off the ground and swinging it a few times to get his focus back.

Just then, Hiro noticed a lone figure off in the distance, trudging through the snow, lurching unsteadily on its feet. His target practice temporarily forgotten, Hiro sheathed the Tetsusaiga and started toward the stranger, as Midoriko ran back and picked up Masuo.

As it turned out, the stranger was a man named Tsutomu, a farmer from a neighboring town who often came to the village of the demon-slayers with news from around the region. He was normally a pleasant, jocund fellow, hail and hearty, with a quick wit that made his stories all the more enjoyable to listen to. Seeing him like this, bruised and weak, his right arm tucked into his drab wool kimono as though it were broken, was enough to give Hiromitsu goosebumps just from looking at him. The young man came up beside Tsutomu, putting a hand under his arm and supporting the man's weight. "Are you all right?" Hiro asked. "What happened?"

"Kaoru..." Tsutomu gasped, "I have to speak with Elder Kaoru immediately! There's an army of monsters headed this way! They've already destroyed all the other towns ... they killed everyone! I've come to warn --" Before he could finish, Tsutomu collapsed in Hiro's arms, and the boy struggled to hold up the man's dead weight. Thankfully, Midoriko chose that moment to come over and help, carrying Masuo in the crook of one arm and helping carry Tsutomu with the other. "Hiro? What's going on? What did he say? What could have happened to Tsutomu?"

"He said there's an army of monsters coming straight for us," Hiromitsu said through clenched teeth. "We've gotta warn the others!" As they made their way up the slope to the main gate of the village, Midoriko looked back over her shoulder and gasped. "Hiro, look at that!"

Hiromitsu turned to follow Midoriko's terrified gaze - and then he wished he hadn't. Stretching across the horizon, a huge black stain seemed to be spreading across the land. As Hiro looked closer, he realized that the rippling mass was actually made up of tens of thousands of individual creatures, some man-shaped, some stranger and more bizarre. Though he couldn't yet see their crimson eyes or smell their decayed flesh, Hiromitsu was almost certain that these monsters were just more of Sounga's minions. Even worse, he knew why Sounga had sent these undead rampaging across the countryside, slaughtering helpless people: he was looking for Hiromitsu. The Great Demon was probably still obsessed with preventing that old prophecy, so he had pulled out all the stops and just thrown out everything he had, planning to overwhelm Hiro and the villagers with sheer numbers and brute force.

_Well_, Hiro thought to himself, _at least there's one bright side to all this:_

_With so many living dead, my bad aim isn't gonna be a problem..._

-----

Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Plot Development

In terms of developing the story, there's a lot going on in this chapter. The scene in which Sounga tortures Saeko is an echo of the first chapter, but this time, Saeko stands up for herself, showing some character growth for her. Once again, Sounga's cruelty reinforces what a bad guy he is. And, of course, we're introduced to the Great Demon's army of undead warriors, and to some of the powers that he and his sword posess.

The second half is dedicated to showing the progression of Hiro and Midoriko's characters from kids to comrades-in-arms. Hiro is shown developing his powers, though he's still in the process of perfecting his skills. Midoriko's thoughts get some much-needed telling, making her more of a character than a plot device. And, of course, Tsutomu's warning and the arrival of Sounga's army start the countdown to the final, climactic fight between good and evil.

In the first draft, I had included several references to Sounga reanimating other demons for his army, maybe even some of the Great Demons he killed during his takeover of Japan. However, now that I've written the last two chapters, I've realized that there's really no place to fit them in, so I got rid of those references and left Sounga's army as humans-only.

-----


	9. Final Battle

Chapter IX:

Final Battle

-----

Within the high, fortified walls of the demon-slayers' village, the townspeople made ready for war. Archers took up their positions on the upper catwalk, bowls of oil and quivers of cloth-wrapped arrows beside them. Farmers were called back from their flocks and fields. Men and women alike donned protective armor, some wearing clothing made from the hide and bones of demonic creatures. Swords and pole-arms were sharpened, and the air rang with the sound of whetstones and freshly-honed steel. Children too young to fight were herded to the far end of town, just inside the wall overlooking a sheer cliff, as far as possible from the one avenue by which Sounga's army could approach the village.

Old Kaoru, the village elder, watched all this in silence, a dozen thoughts pinwheeling through his mind. It was true that Sounga had tried to destroy their village before - in his own lifetime, Kaoru had witnessed an assault by one of the great Demon's soulless legions, and had helped drive back the tide of evil creatures. This time, the odds were stacked almost completely against the demon-slayers. Though their fortress-town occupied the high ground and could only be approached from one side, the army now creeping its way toward them was made up of tens of thousands of undead soldiers, according to his lookouts.

And there was Sounga himself to consider. The crimson-skinned demonic warlord had been sighted earlier that morning, riding an enormous corpse-dragon as he commanded his army through will alone. If even one fourth of the tales about the Great Demon were true, he could best any man alive. His enchanted sword, forged from one of his own fangs, could not only raise an army of corpses on a whim, but could also create blasts of pure dark energy, and could even open portals to the underworld itself, where Sounga sent the souls of all his victims, no matter how pure of heart they might be. With such power at his command, the Great Demon possessed more destructive capability than the entire legion that went before him.

Faced with such overwhelming odds, Kaoru would normally have instructed his people to flee, to find some safe haven where they could rebuild and start anew. With Sounga's forces arrayed in a wide arc across the countryside, however, escape was impossible; they would be surrounded and overwhelmed before they could make an end-run around the far edge of the Great Demon's battle formation. Their only chance for survival was to exterminate Sounga's troops and hope that they could inflict sufficient losses for the Great Demon to decide that their little village wasn't worth the trouble it would take to destroy it. Otherwise, even with all their advantages, every man, woman and child would be slain and "recruited" into Sounga's hellish legion of the living dead.

Which was why Kaoru had ordered several barrels of oil to be held in reserve along with the children. Only fire could truly destroy the undead - or render a corpse so completely useless that Sounga could not resurrect it. If things went badly enough, Kaoru and his people had long ago agreed that it would be better to burn and join their ancestors in the afterlife than to let the Great Demon use their bodies as his tools and cast their spirits into the underworld.

Kaoru could only pray that it would never come to that.

In the small barracks that had been built for apprentice warriors, Hiromitsu put on his own armor. Like the two mystic swords sheathed at his waist, most of it had been forged in the workshop of Totosai, the old fire-demon who had helped him escape Sounga's mountain citadel only four weeks earlier. The breastplate, torso armor and boots he wore over his black and blue-padded bodysuit were made of fine steel, which Hiromitsu had painted a glossy black. He wore light, durable demon-bone forearm plates, with black stripes painted on them much like the blue stripes on Hiromitsu's skin. To protect his shoulders, Hiro also wore a set of spiked, overlapping steel plates. Because of the bitterly cold weather, he was also wearing a white fur cloak which seemed to have been made from some sort of two-tailed animal. At his waist hung the two magic swords Totosai had made from two of Hiro's own canine teeth, the Tenseiga and the Tetsusaiga.

All around him, the other apprentices were also preparing for the upcoming battle. Unlike Hiro, whose supernatural strength allowed him to wear heavier plate armor without hampering his mobility, most of the others wore only their black, form-fitting bodysuits, the colors of the plates reflecting each student's weapon of choice. Those with red plates wore sais sheathed at their waists; blue-padded warriors carried one or more swords; orange pads designated archers; brown pads denoted pikemen and spear-carriers; and pink pads announced that any warrior wearing them was proficient in the use of the hiraikotsu, an amazing, unique edged weapon made from the rib of a giant demon, which - when properly thrown - would actually spin through the air on its own, shredding anything in its path before returning to its wielder. All wore fur-lined cloaks for winter combat, worn loose around the neck and across their shoulders to keep their arms free and allow ease of movement.

As they finished dressing and arming themselves, the apprentices went running out to the practice field in the center of town, where all those who could fight, young and old, man and woman, were gathering together. As he reached the field, Hiro caught sight of Midoriko, now clad in pink-padded garb and wearing her own white cloak, holding the carrying-strap of an enormous hiraikotsu in her right hand. It was just about the only time in the last several weeks that he didn't see her carrying her baby brother in her other arm; Masuo had probably been sent to the rear with the other children.

After several minutes, Old Kaoru approached the front of the assembly, flanked by his two sons, wearing his own heavy gold-plated armor and leaning on a war-hammer rather than his usual walking stick. The elderly man made his way to a raised platform. "My brothers and sisters," he began, "we stand together here in the face of a terrible enemy. For centuries, we and our ancestors have fought the Great Demon and his minions; this is not the first time our lives, our loved ones, our friends and our families have been threatened, but perhaps we can make this the last." He paused for a moment, then began again. "Our lookouts have informed me that, just this morning, the Great Demon Sounga himself was sighted among the host arrayed about our village." Kaoru waited for the murmurs of fear and surprise to quiet. "I know the tales which have been spread bout the Great Demon, and I can tell you that many of them are probably true. However, we and our forebears have dedicated ourseves to combatting the forces of darkness for generations, and whatever strange or terrible powers Sounga may posess, we must remember that even the Great Demon is just like any other monster. He has limits, he has weaknesses, and his only driving force is greed and selfish ambition. You and I, however, fight not only for ourselves, but for those we love, for our homes, and for the freedom of the oppressed people throughout this land. Our driving force is love and compassion, and our weapons are courage and determination - things that the Great Demon himself cannot even comprehend, even for all his vaunted power and arcane knowledge."

Old Kaoru lifted his war-hammer high into the air, the morning sunlight glinting off its golden finish. "Now, my people, let us stand together, and I promise you that, if we are united, we will give that heartless monster Sounga a beating that he won't soon forget!" Everyone cheered, and Hiro found himself joining in. Somehow, despite the overwhelming odds they were facing, Old Kaoru's speech had done something to raise everybody's spirits. As they all headed for the main gate, he came up beside Midoriko, his long, wild white hair flying out behind him as he ran to keep up. "Midoriko!" he called out. "Be careful out there! I know you and the other hiraikotsu-throwers are going to be part of the first wave. If you start getting worn-out, just fall back and let me and the others handle those soldiers." "Don't worry, I know the plan!" Midoriko answered back. "Archers first, then hiraikotsu's, then close-range fighting. Just don't bite off more than you can chew like last time, Hiro."

Midoriko stopped short right in front of him. "Oh, that reminds me - if you won't cut that hair of yours, at least wear this." She pulled out a short leather thong, then pulled Hiro's long hair into a single ponytail and tied it in place. "There!" she said. "Now you won't have to worry about getting that stuff in your eyes." Hiro blushed a bit as he stammered, "Um, uh, um, thanks, Midoriko. It'll remind me of you." Midoriko smiled. "Really? Well, maybe this will help, too..." So saying, she brought Hiro's face down to her level and, before the boy knew what was going on, they were sharing the first real kiss that either one had ever experienced. As they pulled apart, Hiro could only stare at her openmouthed, as Midoriko put a hand to her mouth, torn between laughter and crying. "Hiro, I ... oh, wow! That was ..."

"Amazing?" Hiro supplied.

"Yeah, amazing!" Midoriko answered, and then the two of them turned back to the throng of people headed out through the gate.

Sounga watched the humans' preparations with interest. As their warriors came out through the gate, brandishing weapons of every conceivable description, he also noted the archers taking up positions above them on a catwalk that seemed to run around the top of the town walls. Even from over half a mile away, seated on the back of his monstrous undead dragon mount, Sounga could see that almost half of the archers and warriors were teenagers, and could nearly smell the mingled fear and excitement rolling off them all. _Pathetic_, he thought. _Is this really the best those mortals have to offer? It's embarassing that such a motley band of humans could have beaten back my troops once, let alone four times._

Then he caught sight of the boy Hiromitsu, and suddenly Sounga felt a stab of - surely not fear! - but some sort of unpleasant emotion that he couldn't recall having experienced before, and that he immediately knew he didn't want to feel again. When the runt had been lying on Sounga's throne room floor, he had seen that Hiromitsu had been tall - and as skinny as a string bean, if memory served - but now, clad in armor, wearing a cloak of dazzlingly white fur, his face set in an expression of pure, undaunted determination, he looked less like a boy; he looked like a _threat_.

Sounga gave a grim, mirthless smile. He knew just how to handle threats...

"ATTACK!" he roared. "Kill them all! Kill their men, kill their women, kill their children! Leave nothing living in this village!" _And, if you can, rip that miserable little dog-demon to shreds_, he added silently.

"NO! You can't! They're just protecting themselves! Those people haven't done anything to you! Please, don't do this!" Saeko cried, chained to the wooden rack behind Sounga. Despite the mental beating he had given her earlier, the blind seer, now minus her left arm, seemed to have recovered somewhat.

"Shut your mouth, girl," snapped Sounga, "unless you want to know how it feels to swallow a mouthful of barbed hooks."

"Do your worst, you monster!" she shot back. "When Hiromitsu destroys you, you won't be able to hurt me or anybody ever again."

"Oh, be quiet," Sounga grumbled. Despite his earlier threat, his mental resources were stretched almost to their limit just controlling his army of living dead. He wasn't even sure that he _could _invade the girl's mind at the moment, not that he would let her know it. For now, lacking the ability to actually inflict suffering on Saeko, he would have to resort to threats and bluffing to keep the young girl in her place.

_Of course_, he thought to himself, _once this battle is over, I'll be free to wring out her mind like a damp rag. That should shut her up..._

Pacified, Sounga returned his full attention to the battle, sending a silent command to his own corpse-archers in the front lines...

As close-range fighters, Hiromitsu and Totosai were among the third row of warriors standing in front of the main gate, behind the pikemen and the elite hiraikotsu-wielders. Looking over the shoulder of the man in front of him, Hiro saw Sounga's army start moving forward, the entire horriffic legion moving like a single black mass, and felt the blood begin rushing from his face. 'Ohboy,' he thought to himself, 'here they come...'

"Archers!" Kaoru's voice came loud and clear from the middle of the third row, high and reedy but still full of vigor. "Stand ready! Once those monsters reach the bottom of the hill, ignite your arrows and let them loose. You must give the rest of us cover as-- "

"LOOK OUT!" a cry rang out from somewhere on the archers' catwalk, and suddenly the air was filled with arrows - not the flaming ones the villagers would use against Sounga's undead minions, but steel-tipped projectiles fired from the bows of the living dead, whose superhuman strength obviously gave them greater range than anybody had anticipated. Cries of pain and alarm sounded as some of them found their marks and hit the unprotected defenders.

"Everyone, get down now!" Kaoru shouted. "Do not panic! Remain alert! The plan will still work! Archers, be ready!"

"Hiraikotsu!" someone shouted, and suddenly the air was filled not only with the whistling of black arrows in flight, but also the hurricane-like roar of an enormous hiraikotsu spinning through the air - not toward the still-distant undead, but high into the air, straight into the cloud of arrows falling like rain on the seemingly helpless warriors. Within seconds, the boomerang-shaped weapon had torn a huge gap in the swarm, as those arrows not directly in its whirling, shredding flight path were knocked off-course by the wind of its passage, dropping short or at odd angles, sparing countless lives. Amazed, Hiro looked up as the hiraikotsu returned to its owner - and realized that it had been thrown by none other than Midoriko!

Instantly grasping the implications of Midoriko's unorthodox move, the other hiraikotsu-wielders began tossing their own weapons at staggered intervals, so that no fewer than four of the giant weapons were in the air any one time. Soon, although the air over their heads was still black with flying wood and metal, most of that wood was no more than harmless splinters, and the deflected metal arrowheads were about as deadly as a rain of pebbles, inflicting a few minor cuts as they came down, but nothing worse. A loud cheer went up as the defenders stood back up, once again ready for battle.

"Archers, fire now!" Old Kaoru's voice came again, and Hiro realized that the first wave of Sounga's troops had already reached the bottom of the hill, and was now within range of the villagers' own marksmen. As hiraikotsu's tore apart the flights of arrows intended for the defenders, Kaoru's own archers aimed high and let loose with their own salvo of projectiles wrapped with flaming rags, soaring overhead like a low-flying meteor shower and straight into the enemy formation, setting the undead soldiers' rotten flesh on fire. In the space of about ten seconds, over three hundred of Sounga's troops had been reduced to ash, their battle lines in ruins, their few remaining archers barely able to avoid incineration, much less keep up anything but a trickle of arrows.

The cry of jubilation that had begun with Midoriko's brilliant attack became a roar of victory as the remnants of Sounga's front lines fell back to join the second wave. The demon-slayers had just won the first round, and as the second wave of undead reached the foot of the hill on which their fortified village stood, the archers shifted their aim farther away, hitting the incoming legion right in the middle of their formation, cutting off the rear half of the second wave with an almost solid wall of fire. Some, of course, ran straight into the inferno before Sounga, distracted as he was, could issue a mental command for them to stop, catching themselves on fire and compounding the problem for those behind them.

Although cut off from reinforcements for the time being, the forward half of the second wave seemed unaffected by their sudden isolation. Lacking fear or free will, the living dead simply kept marching at the same steady, deliberate pace they had started with. Weapons at the ready, they trudged up the slope toward the waiting villagers. Raising his war-hammer high into the air, Kaoru cried out, "CHARGE!" and the demon-slayers began marching, then broke into a run down the hill. As the two armies raced toward each other, hiraikotsu's flew from their wielders' hands and ripped into the undead soldiers, tearing them into bits of twisted metal plate and chunks of blue-black, foul-smelling flesh. When the distance had decreased enough that the giant flying weapons were becoming unwieldy, their owners dropped them one-by-one and fell back between the pikemen and spear-carriers to join the swordsmen, drawing the swords sheathed at their waists for close-range fighting.

For the second time, Hiromitsu and Midoriko found themselves running side-by-side, this time with swords drawn. Hiro gave his old friend a grin full of sparkling white teeth, and Midoriko was struck by how his shining golden eyes and blue-striped cheeks made the strange boy look like some sort of wild animal. She had always known that her tall, white-haired friend was different, a boy with a human heart and feelings, but stronger and faster than any human could ever be. Rather than frightening her, Hiro's seeming invulnerability had always made her feel safe whenever they were together. No matter what the world threw at them, she and the other children had always been able to count on Hiromitsu in tight spots, and she had always done her best to be there when he needed her support.

"Ready?" Hiro asked, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Ready as I'll ever be. How about you?" "Are you kidding? After all that time in a dungeon, I've been dying to give these creeps a little payback!" "Then let's go!" Midoriko said, brandishing her shortsword. The two of them joined the rest of the demon-slayers in a battle cry, charging down the slope.

And then Hiro leaped right over the heads of the line of pikemen in front of him. Old Kaoru was well aware of Hiromitsu's supernatural powers, and of the two magic swords that Totosai had made from the young man's fanglike canine teeth. So the village elder had given Hiro a very simple job:

Do as much damage as possible.

Now twenty feet ahead of the other warriors and barely fifteen feet from the closest undead trooper, Hiro did as Totosai had instructed him, channeling as much of his positive life energy into the Tenseiga as the sword would take, making its long, elegant blade glow blue-white and crackle like a bolt of lightning in his hand. He thought of all his friends, of all the people who were counting on him to do what no one else could. Then he drew back the shining blade of the Tenseiga and cried:

"DRAGON STRIKE!"

Half a mile away, still seated on the back of his enormous dragon-mount, Sounga gasped, clutching his head. Without warning, something had made him suddenly lose mental contact with nearly a hundred of his warriors, and whatever had done it had left his head ringing like a struck gong. Certainly, he had lost a fair number of troops to the demon-slayers and their marksmen, but those had been acceptable, anticipated losses, and none of them had _hurt _nearly this much. Blinking in surprise, Sounga looked over toward the battlefront.

And saw a flash of blue-white light, already dissipating as he watched.

_What in the seventh circle of Hell...?_ Sounga thought, just before another jolt hit the Great Demon like a dagger between his crimson eyes.

"AARRGGHHHH!" Sounga cried and switched his perception so that he was looking through the eyes of one of his frontline soldiers. What he saw nearly chilled his molten-brimstone blood; about halfway up the hill on which the demon-slayers' village sat, a semicircle roughly thirty feet across had been blasted out of Sounga's legion of living dead. And standing in the middle of that semicircle, a glowing sword clutched in his hands, was Hiromitsu!

"What's wrong, Your Highness?" Saeko said mockingly from behind him. "Don't tell me a couple of humans and a boy demon are actually _beating _you?"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Sounga's tattooed face contorted into an expresion of inhuman rage. To hell with sending his troops against this runt! After the pain he had just experienced, Sounga's patience had run out; he was not about to subject himself to any more mental anguish just to soften up a boy who was clearly his inferior to begin with.

The Great Demon tugged hard on his mount's greasy mane, and the partially-decomposed beast lifted off toward the battlefront.

Hiromitsu swung his sword again, and more of Sounga's corpse-soldiers vanished in a nimbus of blue lightning. Even after all the weeks of practice he had put in, Hiromitsu was still amazed to realize just how powerful the Tenseiga was - and to think, it was the weaker of his two swords! With each Dragon Strike, at least a hundred living dead were vaporized instantly. Even though he knew that the sword was drawing on his own life energy, and that he wouldn't be able to keep this up indefinitely, Hiro was having the time of his life. Finally, here was his chance to get back at Sounga for the months of beatings he had given Hiromitsu, and to avenge the deaths of his friends' parents.

"Try this on for size, you soulless creeps! DRAGON STRIKE!" Heading downhill, Hiro let loose another attack as he ran, carving another crescent-shaped chunk out of the formation. "Come on, everybody!" he called back to the others, "These guys are just a bunch of pushovers!" From behind him came a fierce battle cry, and soon Hiromitsu found himself at the head of a column of three hundred determined demon-slayers. As their archers continued laying down covering fire from the town wall, they pressed forward, driving deep into the thick of Sounga's army, with Hiro clearing a path through the living dead while Midoriko and the others fended off anything that tried to attack them from the side.

Suddenly, a mighty wind hit the demon-slayers. About a hundred feet ahead, the walking dead began thinning out, creating a clearing right in the middle of the third wave. Then an enormous corpse-dragon set itself down, filling the air with the stench of its putrid flesh. And, mixed with that odor, Hiromitsu suddenly recognized another: rage, blood, and a strong undercurrent of raw evil.

"It's Sounga!" he shouted to the others, baring his teeth and bringing the Tenseiga up into a defensive position, his free hand on the hilt of the Tetsusaiga. Now he could see the Great Demon seated on the back of his undead beast, black cloak billowing in the wind, and seated behind him ...

"SAEKO!" All rational thought departed as Hiro caught sight of the pale young girl tied to a wooden rack behind Sounga, now missing her left arm. When he had been at his lowest, chained in Sounga's dungeon, it had been Saeko who had helped Hiro to keep his spirits up, bringing him food, and finally freeing him and Totosai, even though she herself could never be truly free of Sounga's power. And now, seeing her like this, wounded and helpless, Hiro felt two very distinct emotions occupying his heart: devotion to a girl who was probably one of the two best friends he had ever had, and a burning anger toward Sounga, the one who had inflicted so much suffering on them both.

Sounga dismounted, standing beside his monstrous steed, which still had Saeko's rack attached to it with a heavy iron chain. "Hear me, dog-demon!" he called, addressing Hiromitsu personally. "I have come to settle matters between us once and for all. Defeat me in single combat, and you may yet save Saeko and your other human friends. If you lose, or if you refuse my challenge, I will be forced to slaughter the lot of you." With his keen eyes, Hiro could make out Sounga's sneer even at this distance. "So, boy," the Great Demon said, "will you accept? Or do you intend to stand there with your tail between your legs?"

"In case you're blind, I don't have a tail, I'm not a dog, and I'm right here, you monster!" Without thinking, Hiro bounded up and over the heads of the troopers in front of him, covering the distance between himself and the Great Demon in seconds, landing in the open circle in front of Sounga's dragon-mount. "You want me so bad? Well, here I am, so let Saeko and the others go!" Keeping the Tenseiga in his right hand, Hiro drew the enormous Tetsusaiga from its sheath with his left, holding the two magic swords crossed in front of him, his teeth bared in a display that would have sent any human running in terror.

Sounga merely shrugged. "As you wish," he said. There was an audible click as Saeko's manacles unlocked themselves, and the blind girl tumbled from the dragon's back and onto the ground. His thoughts of battling Sounga shelved for the moment, Hiro ran over to Saeko, laying the heavy Tetsusaiga on the ground so that he could help her sit up.

"H-hiro ... Hiromitsu?" Saeko asked weakly.

Hiro just grinned at the sound of her voice. "Yeah, it's me! I've come to rescue you!"

Saeko's blind eyes went wide. "Hiro, no! It's a trap! Sounga was using me as bait to--" Then the young girl gasped, as though from a sudden pain.

"Saeko? What's wrong!"

Saeko slumped forward, laying her head on Hiromitsu's shoulder. She shut her emerald-green eyes, but cold tears trickled down from them anyway. "It's ... It's all right, Hiromitsu. I'm glad I got to hear your voice one last time."

"Huh! What do you mean, 'last time'? Saeko!"

Instead of answering, Saeko gave a sigh, wrapping her remaining arm around Hiro's neck.

And crumbled into dust in his arms.

For a moment, Hiromitsu could only kneel there, jaw slack, wide-eyed with shock, what little remained of Saeko's body clinging to the front of his blue-padded outfit, now no more than common dirt. "N-n-no," he stammered, as though saying the word would undo what had just happened, as though he could negate the fact that Saeko was gone. "No! NOOOOO!"

"Pathetic," a voice said from behind him, and Hiromitsu turned to see Sounga standing behind him, a look of disdain on his tattooed red face. "All that wasted emotion over a mortal. Your compassion truly is your weakness, boy."

Hiromitsu's face twisted into an expression of pure, unadulterated hatred. "You ... you bastard! What the hell did you do to her?"

"I merely took back the power I had used to keep her soul and body together. Now her physical form is no more, and her spirit has passed to the underworld."

"You're lying! Saeko was a good person. You can't send a good soul to Hell!"

"Fool! I myself came from the netherworld over three centuries ago. Do you really believe that it is beyond my power to reverse the process for my enemies?"

"No! Let her go right now!"

Sounga leered at Hiromitsu. "Do not presume to give me commands, boy. Saeko was an annoyance to me, and now she will pay for her insolence - as will your friends! EXTERMINATE THEM!" he cried to his troops, and all at once, the entire army of living dead charged past Hiromitsu toward the other demon-slayers.

"NOOO!" Hiro cried, turning back toward his friends - just as a sudden impact hit him in the back, laying him out flat on his stomach. As he pushed himself back up onto his knees, Hiro saw Sounga's minions closing in around Midoriko and the others. Furious, he spun around to face Sounga, now standing with his sword drawn beside his mount, grinning wickedly at the boy.

"You said you'd let them go!" Hiro shouted.

"Yes ... and you were foolish enough to believe me. Did you honestly expect me to honor a promise made to a weakling such as yourself?"

"You ... you lying BASTARD!"

"Do not concern yourself with them, boy. You have your own problems to contend with." At this, the corpse-dragon beside Sounga gave a roar, and its long, serpentine neck lashed out toward him, its reptilian maw opened wide. Hiro jumped backward, barely avoiding a bite that would have snapped him in two. Then he gritted his teeth, hefted the Tenseiga, and hit the monster with a Dragon Strike. To his shock, the blue energy bolt simply glanced off the dragon's thick hide. Though an undead creature, this horriffic thing was clearly tougher than any of Sounga's other minions; no wonder the Great Demon had chosen to hide himself behind it.

Clenching his teeth, Hiro sheathed the Tenseiga and drew out the enormous Tetsusaiga - nearly falling forward as the sword expanded to its full size - and swung it at the corpse-dragon. "WIND SCAR!" he cried, and a blast of golden energy shot forth from the giant blade ...

And missed the dragon by about thirty feet.

The undead monster swung its neck around to follow the Wind Scar as it blew by, blinked once, then turned back to Hiromitsu and roared.

_Uh-oh_, Hiro thought, _Suddenly, this is looking a lot harder than I thought it would be..._

Surrounded on all sides, facing overwhelming odds, suddenly cut off from all support, the demon-slayers had to retreat back to the main gate, as Sounga's army pushed them back up the hill. Occasionally, someone would scream, and Sounga's forces would increase by one as another defender fell and was resurrected as one of the living dead, purged of his or her soul, turning on the very people whom they had once called friends, neighbors and family.

It was all Midoriko could do to defend herself, parrying the blows coming at her from at least a half-dozen living dead who had all decided to pick her as their target. Although only fire could truly destroy the undead, decapitating them or chopping off limbs did slow them down, so Midoriko focused on blocking blows and cutting off heads. At one point, she found herself fighting beside Totosai, the old fire-demon who had helped Hiro escape the dungeon of Sounga's citadel, waving a long-handled hammer to swat away the living dead in a wide arc. "Hey, old man," she called over the din of battle, "can't you breathe fire on these guys or something?"

"What? In case you haven't noticed, young lady, I don't have nearly enough firepower to get rid of all those undead! I'm saving my strength for an emergency."

_If this doesn't qualify as an emergency,_ Midoriko thought to herself, _I don't think I _want _to know what does!_

Hiro dodged again as Sounga's corpse-dragon lashed out with its long neck, taking a bite out of the air he had just occupied. It had occurred to him to wonder why the creature didn't just breathe fire and burn him to a crisp, but the answer was obvious: with a body made of rotten flesh, the dragon itself was as flammable as an oil slick.

_Wait! Flammable! That's it!_ While his swords created blasts of his life energy rather than real fire, they were still made of metal - which meant that they could also create sparks! When the monster lashed out at him again, Hiro struck the Tenseiga's blade against the Tetsusaiga, sending a burst of sparks at the long, greasy mane of grey fur that ran along the dragon's neck. Instantly, the undead beast reared back and screamed as its face caught fire, followed shortly by the rest of its body. Even as it burned, the monster made one last attempt to destroy Hiromitsu, reaching for him with its jaws. This time, though, with most of its muscles burned away, the creature was much slower, and Hiro leaped aside easily, then used the Tetsusaiga's giant blade to slice right through its flaming neck, severing the monster's head. The creature's almost fleshless skull fell to the ground with one last hiss, and its body took a single, faltering sidestep before it collapsed, now no more than a heap of burning fat and ashes.

"Well, Your Highness," Hiro called out, breathing heavily, "it looks like you're all out of puppets to hide behind. Ready to give up yet?"

"Hardly." The Great Demon stepped through the burning ruin that had been his mount, the flames parting around him as though he was surrounded by some invisible bubble. "While I must admit that your ingenuity is commendable, you have nowhere near the power required to challenge me."

"Really? Weren't you the one who thought it was my destiny to destroy you?"

Sounga scowled. "An image of you might have destroyed me in Saeko's so-called 'prophecy', but trust me, boy, I will crush you, and once I do, I will have beaten even Fate itself!"

"You're so full of it!" Hiro said. "You think you can take on the whole _Universe_? Why would you even want to, anyway?"

"For _power_, you ignorant runt!" Sounga snarled. "Power enough to do whatever I wish. Power to unmake entire worlds, or to make their inhabitants bow down at my feet. Power to have or take anything I wish. Enough power that no one will ever be able to hold me accountable to any law or standard."

"So, the only reason you kill people is to get more power? You've spent three hundred years making life miserable for everybody, just for your own sick gratification?"

"Of course!"

Hiro had to smile. "Jeez, and you call _me _pathetic!"

Sounga's mouth went slack. "What did you say?"

"I said that _you're _the one who's pathetic! You're so focused on becoming powerful that you don't care about anyone else. You've got no friends, you bully everybody, and someday you're going to pick a fight with someone who's more powerful than you are. You're screwed already, and you don't even know it!"

"You ... you _dare _mock me! Me, the Great Demon Sounga, God of Darkness, ruler of the eastern islands?"

"Yeah, I dare mock you, and I think you're a bully, a jerk, and a coward! You spend all your time getting power over other people, and all you've got to show for it are a bunch of smelly corpses and a lousy temper. You're no god - you're just a big, ugly creep!"

"SILENCE!" Sounga roared, and Hiromitsu felt as though an invisible hand had just socked him in the gut, hard enough to send him flying backward, landing on his seat as Sounga charged forward, his demon blade burning with a fierce pink light. Hiro barely had time to get to his feet and bring the Tenseiga up into a defensive block before Sounga hit him at full tilt, sending the boy stumbling, off-balance. Then another blast of psychic energy hit Hiromitsu like a punch in the face, and the world seemed to turn grey around him as the young demon sailed through the air, once again landing on his back.

Fighting to stay conscious, Hiro leaned on the Tetsusaiga as he tried to stand back up, keeping a wary eye on Sounga as the Great Demon strode imperiously forward, his free hand held palm-outward before him. "Now, DIE!" Sounga snarled, and while his psychic blast was invisible, Hiromitsu could see the grass part and dirt fly as it closed the distance between them. "You first! WIND SCAR!" Hiro shouted, yanking the Tetsusaiga out of the ground and channeling as much of his energy through it as he dared without blacking out, focusing as hard as he could on the surge of energy coming toward him, willing the bolt of golden energy to hit its mark. The Wind Scar left the blade of the Tetsusaiga ...

And this time, Hiromitsu didn't miss.

The two forces met barely ten feet from where Hiro was kneeling. There was a sound like a thunderclap, and the force of their collision was enough to make a five-foot-wide crater and create deep cracks in the ground. Hiro barely managed to stay upright as the shockwave hit him. Sounga's barrier seemed to take the edge off the concussion, and bits of rock and dirt bounced harmlessly off it, but even so, his expression seemed to have shifted from blind rage to surprise.

_How could he have deflected that attack?_ wondered Sounga. Then surprise gave way to anger once again, and Sounga let loose with another blast, letting his rage boil out of his body and rush toward the boy in a flood that would have blown any human to chunks of bloody flesh. Hiro, however, wasn't about to wait for Sounga's attack to reach him. Bringing the Tetsusaiga up over his head, he cried, "BACKLASH WAVE!" and brought the giant blade down, striking the ground and unleashing the sword's second special attack, a whirling vortex of energy, like a cyclone on its side, roaring toward Sounga. The Backlash Wave met Sounga's attack roughly halfway between them ... then sucked it up, redirected it, and slammed into Sounga's barrier with even more power than Hiromitsu had originally put into it.

Sounga stumbled back a step as his barrier collapsed, shielding his face with his sword arm, then turned back to face Hiromitsu. The time for fun and games was over; now he was going to end this contest once and for all. With a roar of utter fury, he charged Hiromitsu as the boy was still struggling to stand, raining a flurry of blows down upon him. Though he could barely stay on his feet, Hiro tried desperately to use the Tenseiga to parry Sounga's strikes, dragging the heavy Tetsusaiga as he beat a shuffling, stumbling retreat. Then Sounga made a deep cut in his left shoulder.

Then his side.

And then his leg.

Moaning with pain, Hiromitsu fell backward, barely able to hold back Sounga's blade as the Great Demon tried to cut his throat. Their faces barely six inches apart, the Tenseiga pinned beneath Sounga's sword just beneath Hiro's chin, his weakened left hand unable to lift the Tetsusaiga, the two warriors looked into one another's eyes.

"It's over, boy," Sounga said. "You could not save Saeko, you cannot save your friends, and now, you cannot even save yourself! Now, die!"

As the Great Demon's sword edged ever closer to his throat, Hiromitsu shut his eyes. He wasn't afraid of death; he had gone into battle knowing that he might be killed, either by Sounga or his army of living dead. What troubled him most was that he had failed his friends. If he died now, Midoriko, Totosai, and all his other friends would be killed, along with hundreds of other innocent people.

If he died now...

"Midoriko..."

-----

Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Character Design

At the start of the ninth chapter, we see a lot of familiar motifs. The demon-slayers are dressed in black, form-fitting jumpsuits, and those with hiraikotsu's have pink pads - a costume that will one day become very familiar to Inuyasha fans as Sango's outfit of choice.

Hiro, too, is becoming more and more like the Great Dog-Demon we see in "Swords". Though he's still wearing a blue-padded bodysuit similar to that of the other demon-slayers, he's also got his spiked shoulder plates, striped body armor, and his two-tailed white cloak. Finally, thanks to Midoriko, his wild white hair gets tied back into a long ponytail, very nearly completing his physical transformation.

-Plot Development

There's a lot going on in this chapter. Of course, the big, climactic battle starts. We also see Hiro and Midoriko kiss for the first time. Saeko dies, and Hiro and Sounga's mutual hatred jumps to a whole new level. Midoriko's prowess as a young warrior impresses the other demon-slayers, which will have a big impact in future stories.

-Fight Choreography

The initial setup is a bit like the battle of Helm's Deep in "Lord of the Rings": a huge army of evil monsters trying to attack and overwhelm a small but well-entrenched group of defenders. Once Hiromitsu starts blasting away with his Dragon Strikes, though, it's the demon-slayers who go on the offensive, at least briefly. This illustrates just how much Hiro has improved during his months of practice, and how much power he now has thanks to his two new swords.

Once Sounga shows up and challenges Hiro to a one-on-one match, the character of the battle changes completely. While Hiro is tied up fighting Sounga, the demon-slayers are forced back on the defensive. Meanwhile, Hiro tries to match Sounga strength-for-strength, fueled by anger after Saeko dies in his arms, but finds that he is once again outmatched. Each time Hiro manages to survive one kind of attack, Sounga simply ups the ante, from hiding behind a monster to psychic blasts to intense swordfighting. Clearly, Hiro has to rely on more than just his own rage to beat Sounga.

-----


	10. Hiromitsu, the Great Dog Demon

Chapter X:

Hiromitsu, the Great Dog-Demon

-----

"Midoriko ..."

"What was that, runt?" Sounga sneered at Hiromitsu, bearing down inexorably on the boy's throat, his own demon blade glowing with dark energy as he pushed against the Tenseiga. "Perhaps you worry about one of your pet humans? Don't worry; she'll be joining you in Hell soon enough!"

At that moment, something seemed to snap within Hiromitsu. His golden eyes flew open. If he died now, this grinning monster would win, and Midoriko, Totosai ... everyone he cared about would be killed.

"You're not ... going to ... hurt ... her ..." he growled through clenched teeth, "because I ... _won't _... LET YOU!"

Suddenly, Sounga became aware of a change in the air around them. It was as though a hurricane were forming around them, with himself and the boy right in the eye of it. The wind itself seemed charged with energy, and the boy...

Hiromitsu was pushing him back.

Slowly at first, then picking up speed, Sounga's mystic sword seemed to be rising up and away from the boy's throat, driven back by the Tenseiga, which was now glowing with a blue-white light so intense that Sounga had to squint.

The Great Demon blinked. _What?_

With a roar of fury, Hiromitsu leaped to his feet, pushing Sounga back another step, then another, until finally Sounga found himself not just giving ground, but racing backward, using his demon sword to parry what seemed like a hailstorm of flashing steel. Despite his wounds, Hiromitsu was wielding both of his swords, even the heavy Tetsusaiga, striking faster than any human eye could follow, forcing Sounga to go on the defensive. In desperation, Sounga let go of his sword with his right hand, crossing it in front of his chest.

Then he uncrossed it.

Freed by the force of his swinging arm, the sharpened red spikes of his forearm guard separated, hitting Hiromitsu at point-blank range, burying themselves in his chest. The boy cried out, dropping the Tenseiga and clutching at his wounds, trying to draw the spikes out. No longer having to block Hiromitsu's attacks, Sounga took this opportunity to perform a backflip, landing about fifty feet away. Straightening up, he observed Hiromitsu, wounded, stricken with over a dozen deep stab wounds. As he watched, the young demon pulled out the last of the spikes, then brought his eyes up to meet Sounga's, glaring fiercely. Even in his weakened condition, the boy actually picked up the Tetsusaiga, holding it straight out in front of him.

Sounga had to smile. "Impressive, boy. I must admit, this little fracas has given me a bit of exercise." Then his face hardened, and he lifted his sword up into the air. "But now, it is time to end it." Sounga's blade blazed with a sudden influx of its master's negative life energy. At its tip, a ball of even brighter energy appeared like an intense dark star, an evil sun shining right there on the battlefield.

"DRAGON TWISTER!" he cried.

Sounga swung the blade down, striking the ground. Dirt and air were sucked into the heart of the ball, creating a powerful vortex. Then the Dragon Twister blasted forward, shredding earth and sky, headed straight toward Hiromitsu. At the last possible moment, Hiro drew back his heavy sword, lifting it high over his head. "BACKLASH WAVE!" he exclaimed, creating his own whirling cyclone of golden energy in an attempt to redirect Sounga's attack. The Backlash Wave hit Sounga's Dragon Twister head-on ...

And was ripped apart by the oncoming whirlwind.

Hiromitsu had time for one last thought: _Uh-oh ..._

And then there was only pain.

Suddenly, a whirling cloud of dirt and debris appeared over the battlefield, with a fierce pink light at the center of it. As Midoriko watched in horror from the town gate, the cloud expanded to nearly a thousand feet wide, an unnatural hurricane of pure destructive force.

_That's where Hiro was fighting! _she realized.

_Hiro, please be safe ..._

Sounga sheathed his sword, smiling wickedly, gazing at the still-smoking crater that now marked the spot where Hiromitsu had been standing. "Foolish boy," he said aloud. "You should have known that no living being can possibly defeat me." So saying, Sounga shifted his gaze upward toward the fortress-town where the last of the demon-slayers were struggling to keep his legion of living dead. Just looking at the battle, its outcome was obvious: however skilled they might be, the demon-slayers numbered only about three hundred, and Sounga's army was over ten thousand strong. Now that he no longer had to split his focus between two fronts, Sounga would be able to concentrate solely on exterminating the lot of them.

"Time to finish it," Sounga said to himself, redirecting his perceptions, preparing to crush the humans with the full force of his armies.

"You can say that again!" came an angry snarl.

Sounga's crimson eyes went wide, and the Great Demon spun about, facing once again the smoldering hole in the ground that he had just created.

And there, standing right in the middle of it, was Hiromitsu!

Sounga goggled at him. This simply wasn't possible; not even another Great Demon had ever withstood the power of his Dragon Twister! Yet somehow, this seventeen-year-old demon boy had not only survived, but was actually standing under his own power, swords in hand, ready and willing to keep fighting! And there was another thing, as well ...

As the dust and smoke cleared, Sounga could see that the boy was glowing.

The light surrounding Hiromitsu was not the blue-white glow of the Tenseiga, nor was it the golden light of the Tetsusaiga. Clearly, this was the boy's own aura, shining with incredible power.

The words of Saeko suddenly flashed through Sounga's mind: "I saw a man. He was tall, and he had long hair. He carried two swords. There was a bright, white light shining out of him, like he was made of it." She had been describing the being who, in her vision, would be responsible for Sounga's destruction. Now, suddenly, here was that very being, radiating light and energy like a supernova. Against all odds, despite Sounga's best efforts to thwart it, the blind girl's prophecy was coming to pass!

"Is that the best you've got?" Hiro said mockingly. "Well, have some of this! WIND SCAR!" The blast of golden energy erupted from the Tetsusaiga's blade so fast that Sounga had no time to generate his Dragon Twister. Before he had even withdrawn his focus back from his troops, Sounga fould himself knocked bodily into the air, spinning head over heels, then landed in a rather undignified position on his rump. Sounga picked himself up, still staring at Hiromitsu as the boy stepped out of the crater and back onto green grass.

"You killed Saeko," Hiro growled. "You tried to kill my friends, and you tried to kill me. I'm not letting you hurt anyone else!" Then Hiromitsu threw back his head and howled, and while Sounga stood by in shock and awe, Hiro began to _change_. Feet and hands became huge paws. His white fur cloak seemed to melt into his body, becoming a full-body covering of shining white fur. The irises of Hiromitsu's golden eyes became a pale blue, surrounded by a sea of red. Mouth and nose stretched forward into a canine muzzle. Finally, the creature that had been Hiromitsu went from an upright position to a four-legged stance, enormous teeth bared. Hiromitsu had taken on his true form: a snow-white dog nearly sixty feet from nose to tail, a canine Great Demon.

He had become a Great Dog-Demon.

-----

For Hiromitsu, the change didn't feel strange or uncomfortable. It wasn't much more difficult than channeling his life energy through the Tetsusaiga or the Tenseiga. The main difference, of course, was that all that power was being directed into his own body now, and that it didn't require any special spells from Totosai. It was as though this new form had been tucked away inside him all along; he just hadn't had a reason to unlock it until now.

Hiro shook his enormous canine head, trying to get used to his new body. _Okaaaay_, he thought to himself. _Now, how the heck do I walk like thi--_

"DRAGON TWISTER!" Suddenly, Hiro felt himself lifted off the ground by an incredible concussive force. While he had been distracted with his new form, Sounga had taken the opportunity to launch his most powerful attack. As gale-force winds and debris whirled around him, Hiromitsu struggled to regain his breath, get control of his new limbs and right himself in midair. As the Dragon Twister started to dissipate, Hiro finally managed to get all four paws under him and land more-or-less upright. His side still ached from where Sounga's attack had initially hit him, but Hiromitsu barely felt it now. He was much bigger and more powerful than he had been.

And now, he was _really _pissed off...

-----

Sounga's jaw went slack. Again, the words of Saeko rose up from the bowels of his memory: "I'm not sure he was really a man. He felt like he was so much more; he was as bright as you are dark, and he kept changing into a dog in my dream."

"NO!" Sounga cried, backing away from the enormous apparition before him. "Stay back! Don't touch me!" In response, Hiromitsu only growled, then charged toward Sounga, head down, preparing to ram him.

Desperately, Sounga raised his sword into the air once again. "DRAGON TWISTER!" he exclaimed, pouring as much power into the blade as he could and releasing it straight at Hiromitsu. The blast hit the dog-demon on the top of his head, but rather than slowing down, Hiro batted the whirling ball of dark energy aside with a jerk of his head, then continued right on course.

Sounga's face was still frozen in shock as Hiro slammed into him like a freight train on four legs, knocking the Great Demon off his feet and into the air. Then, like a dog playing fetch, Hiromitsu caught Sounga in the middle of his flightpath...

And then he bit down.

Sounga let out a shrill scream as canine teeth the size of steak knives tore into his body, cracking his heavy plate armor like a nutshell. For Hiro, having a mouthful of Sounga was no picnic, either; the sharp metal spikes of the Great Demon's armor lodged in his gums, his tongue and the roof of his mouth, and the Great Dog-Demon tasted his own blood. Still, he hung on, shaking Sounga from side to side, doing as much damage as he could before finally dropping Sounga to the ground like a dead rat, the Great Demon's left leg bent at an unnatural angle, molten-brimstone blood seeping from dozens of deep wounds.

Sounga tried to at least bring himself up into a sitting position, but even while leaning on his sword for support, his much abused back seemed to have gone on strike. Gasping with pain, he struggled to face his opponent. Meanwhile, Hiromitsu, sensing that his enemy was no longer in any shape to keep fighting, had reverted to his human form. Hiro drew the Tetsusaiga and walked over to the Great Demon. Helpless, Sounga could only watch as Hiromitsu brought the tip of his enormous sword to within an inch of his throat.

"You know," Hiro said, a trickle of blood running down his cheek from his torn gums, "you've probably got no idea how much I'd like to cut your head off right now." The young man kneeled down, so that he and Sounga were looking directly at each other along the length of the Tetsusaiga. "But, unlike _some _folks, I don't kill defenseless people - not even scum like you." Hiro stood up, still keeping his sword at Sounga's throat, the young man now towering over the Great Demon. "Call off your living dead and free every last soul you've sent to the underworld, and I'll bring you to the village elders to stand trial. Maybe, if you're lucky, they'll just seal you away in some tree for a thousand years."

"How very ... generous of you, boy," Sounga rasped. "It seems that you really are a fair, compassionate being. I, on the other hand, have no need for such stupidity!" Too late, Hiro noticed that the blade of Sounga's sword was glowing faintly - just before a tremendous explosion blasted both combatants into the air in opposite directions. While Hiro tried to keep from landing on his head, Sounga - whose injuries suddenly seemed much less severe - used the force of the blast to put some distance between himself and his opponent, landing cat-footed, sword drawn, a feral grin on his face. As Hiro touched down, the Great Demon raised his sword high into the air. While he would have preferred to let his troops slaughter the humans at a distance while he crushed Hiromitsu, it seemed that killing the boy would require more effort than Sounga had anticipated. Closing his eyes, Sounga focused on his sword - not to channel power into it this time, but to draw energy back into himself ...

-----

"Hold the gate! Don't let them through!" Old Kaoru's voice called above the din of battle, but the villagers had no way of following through on the elder's command. Their defense was faltering under the relentless pressure of Sounga's army. While the undead never tired, human beings could only do so much before exhaustion set in. After nearly an hour of nonstop fighting, Midoriko's arms were burning from muscle fatigue, her skin was covered with slashes of varying severity, and it was all she could do to keep Sounga's living dead from ripping her to pieces. She had given up trying to do any damage; now, she was entirely on the defensive, unable to strike back but unwilling to give in.

While Midoriko managed to parry three strikes simultaneously, one of her fellow defenders wasn't so lucky; she heard a scream, then a heavy thump as one more corpse hit the ground, to be raised up only moments later as one of the undead.

Gritting her teeth, Midoriko tried to find the old fire-demon Totosai. "Hey, old man!" she called. "You were saving your fire power for a real emergency? Well, guess what: now would be a really good time!"

With a sigh of resignation, Totosai gave one last sweep with his hammer, then took a deep breath. A moment later, the old fire-demon blew a jet of red-hot flame at the legion of living dead. While not quite as effective as one of Hiro's Dragon Strike attacks, Totosai's fire still wiped out several dozen undead, giving the demon-slayers some much-needed breathing space. While Sounga's minions stood patiently behind the flames, waiting for an opportunity to move forward, the defenders reorganized their battle lines, preparing for one last stand against the army of monsters.

When the fire finally subsided, the living dead stepped forward in perfect unison, swords and spears out and ready...

And then crumbled into dust.

As the demon-slayers watched in stunned silence, Sounga's entire army simply disintegrated right in front of them. Nearly ten thousand walking corpses suddenly fell apart for no apparent reason, blanketing the already snow-covered ground with a layer of fine dust.

Midoriko could hardly believe her eyes. "T-t-Totosai," she stammered, "was that you?"

"Sounga is gone!" somebody shouted, "Hiromitsu finally destroyed the Great Demon!"

"No, it isn't over yet," Totosai said, pointing to where Hiro had been. "Look!"

Midoriko followed the old demon's gaze. There was Hiro ... and about twenty feet away, holding his sword high in the air, was Sounga. As she watched, Midoriko felt a strong wind from behind her, carrying the dust off of the ground and toward the Great Demon, forming a whirling spiral around Sounga.

"Oh, my," she heard Totosai say, "This is not good. Sounga is drawing all his power back into himself. He intends to finish off Hiromitsu!"

"Oh no!" Midoriko looked from Sounga to Hiromitsu and back again. Please, she thought, praying silently to whatever gods might be listening, Please keep him safe. Please let Hiro win!

-----

Sounga stood tall, grinning wickedly at Hiromitsu as power flooded back into him. The Great Demon's red-and-black armor, cracked only minutes before by Hiromitsu's fangs, seemed to heal in seconds - even the sharpened spikes he had thrown to injure Hiro regenerated, as though the armor was actually part of his body. Sounga's wounds closed up. Even his black cloak seemed to regenerate, rippling in the sudden, unnatural breeze, whole and intact.

"Now do you see the futility of fighting me, boy?" he said. "Prophecy or not, you were never a match for me!"

Hiro bared his teeth _Damn!_ he thought to himself, _Now I've got to beat him all over again!_

As the whirlwind blew around him, Sounga sheathed his sword, spreading his arms wide, drawing in energy through every pore and laughing like a madman. "Now, runt," he cried, "taste the wrath of a Great Demon!"

And then he began to change.

Sounga's black cloak spread wide, seeming to merge with his arms, becoming a huge pair of leathery wings. Armor plates became glistening red scales, a diamond-hard, full-body sheath interrupted only by sharp, wickedly curved spines. Sounga's heavy boots split into three-toed talons. The Great Demon's crimson face stretched forward into a reptilian set of jaws filled with murderous sharp teeth, his neck elongating into a serpentine spiked appendage, thick as a tree trunk and nearly a hundred feet long. A long, muscular tail appeared at the back of Sounga's rapidly growing torso, ending with a bladed tip. Finally, sprouting from his shoulders like some grotesque pair of tumors, two smaller secondary heads emerged on their own long, thin necks, screeching with bloodlust.

Now in his true form, Sounga towered over Hiromitsu, a demonic dragon with a wingspan so wide that it blocked out the sun. Though his elongated jaws could no longer form words, the Great Demon's voice seemed to boom within Hiro's own head, hugely amplified. _BEHOLD! I AM SOUNGA, THE GREAT DEMON, GOD OF DARKNESS, RULER OF THE EASTERN ISLANDS, AND I AM INVINCIBLE!_

"No," Hiro snarled, not intimidated in the least, "you're just full of yourself!"

Sounga roared with fury, then unleashed streams of fire from all three of his heads. The blast was like nothing Hiro had ever felt before: an incredible, concentrated burst of heat that made him think of the fires in Totosai's blacksmithing shop, incinerating anything it touched. Hiro barely managed to leap out of the way, but even ten feet away from the flames, the heat was powerful enough to singe his fur cloak.

Hiro turned to face his enormous adversary, clutching the Tetsusaiga tightly as Sounga's heads reared back on their necks, readying themselves for another barrage. This time, Hiro stood his ground as Sounga launched another attack. "You want to play with fire, huh? Well, fine by me! BACKLASH WAVE!" Hiro countered the oncoming fireball with his own vortex of concentrated emotional energy in an attempt to redirect the attack back at Sounga. The plan only worked halfway; though his Backlash Wave managed to intercept Sounga's blast before it could roast Hiromitsu, the Great Demon's attack was simply too strong to be rerouted. The two forces canceled each other out in a massive midair explosion, spewing weaker gobs fire in all directions.

_Dammit!_ he thought, _My Backlash Wave might be good for self-defense, but I need some way to_ hurt _him!_ "WIND SCAR!" He yelled, sending forth an energy bolt straight toward Sounga's center head. His attack hit Sounga between the eyes - and bounced right off, without leaving so much as a scratch on the Great Demon's armored hide. Instead of injuring Sounga, Hiro's attack only seemed to enrage the monster even more, prompting another three-headed blast. Instead of wasting more energy on another Backlash Wave, Hiro chose to dodge this time, letting Sounga reduce a patch of snow-covered ground to blackened cinders.

_Come on! Think!_ In desperation, Hiromitsu shape-shifted into his giant canine form. If Sounga was more powerful in his larger form, maybe the only way to destroy him was by matching his tactics. Howling, Hiro sprang at Sounga, jaws wide open, trying to attack one of the Great Demon's writhing throats. As he launched himself into the air, however, Hiro realized that his plan wasn't very well thought-out; even as a Great Dog-Demon, he was barely even one twentieth Sounga's size. Still, when his flightpath brought him to the neck of one of Sounga's secondary heads, he bit down hard - nearly breaking half his teeth as he encountered the Great Demon's incredibly hard scales. Holding back a yowl of pain from his already-injured gums, Hiro hung on for dear life as the head whipped around, trying to shake him off. Though his grip was secure, Hiro just couldn't pierce Sounga's tough hide.

With another mighty roar, Sounga flapped his enormous wings and lifted off, heading up into the sky. _DO YOU WISH TO RIDE ME, DOG-DEMON?_ Sounga's mental voice inquired. _THEN I SUGGEST YOU HOLD ON TIGHTLY - IT'S A VERY, VERY LONG WAY DOWN!_ Cruel laughter echoed in Hiro's head as Sounga rise higher and higher. If he lost his grip now, a fall from such heights would shatter every bone in his body; unlike Sounga, Hiro's canine form lacked wings. The fact that the neck he had grabbed hold of was now twisting and jerking like a scale-covered bullwhip wasn't helping matters, either.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hiro saw Sounga's other secondary head lunge toward him, jaws wide, intending to physically pluck him off its comrade. Before it could reach him, Hiro jerked his whole body, letting go of the neck he had been clinging to, tumbling in midair. For one heart-stopping moment, Hiro was in free-fall; if he hadn't timed his leap right, or if Sounga's head pulled away, he would drop to his death.

Then he landed on Sounga's other secondary head, staring straight into its enormous crimson eyes. Before the dragon head could realize what had happened and try shaking him off, Hiro scrambled over its scale-covered face and stuck his left paw in between its right eye and its eyelid, using his claws to dig into the sensitive, unprotected flesh inside the lid. Once he had secured his foothold, Hiro reached up with his remaining front paw and slashed the eye open right across the huge black slit of its pupil. The dragon head let out a high-pitched shriek of agony, thrashing wildly as blood and foul-smelling jelly poured out of its ruined right eye. _AAAARRRRGGGHHH!_ Sounga howled. _YOU FOOL! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?_

_You think this hurts?_ Hiro said wordlessly. _Well, you ain't seen nothing yet!_ So saying, he took another swipe with his right paw, slicing open the head's second eye. The creature's screams rose in pitch and volume, and its jerking increased to a spasmodic frenzy of pain and anger.

With a mental yowl like nails on a chalkboard, Sounga's main head reared up, glaring at the tiny dog-demon clinging to his wounded subordinate. _I'LL USE YOUR BLACKENED BONES FOR TOOTHPICKS!_ Sounga cried, his cavernous mouth glowing with fire from his own inner inferno. As a ball of red-hot flame shot toward him, Hiro let go of his temporary "host", letting its wild motion fling him toward Sounga's broad, scale-covered back. Meanwhile, Sounga's fire blast hit his injured secondary head, and the wounded appendage wailed as its crimson scales were charred black and its bleeding eye sockets were painfully cauterized. In retaliation, the blind head attacked the source of its latest injury - which just happened to be Sounga's main head. As it bit down on his throat, Sounga shouted, _OWWW! LET GO OF ME,YOU NITWIT!_

_Man!_ Hiro thought to himself, _And I thought he had issues_ before _he became a three-headed iguana!_

Shape-shifting back to his human form, Hiro caught hold of one of a row of curved spines sticking up from Sounga's backbone. The razor-sharp dorsal spine cut into his palm like the blade of a scimitar, but Hiro kept his grip, ignoring the pain and drawing the Tenseiga with his free hand. Though he knew that he could never pierce Sounga's armored scales, he realized that he wouldn't have to; bending down, he stuck his sword in at an angle, pushing it in _between _the overlapping scutes and, at long last, penetrating Sounga's defense. "DRAGON STRIKE!" he shouted, and a blast of his own positive energy zapped straight into Sounga's vulnerable reptilian flesh. Blue-white energy crackled over and through the Great Demon's enormous length as though Sounga had just been struck by lightning. The combined screams of all three of Sounga's heads were deafening. The giant beast bucked in midair as his wing muscles misfired, and Hiro clung tightly to the Tenseiga's handle, still stuck in Sounga's hide, to keep from falling off.

Sounga managed to get himself back under control. As one, all three of his heads swiveled back on their long necks. The two heads that still had eyes glared at Hiromitsu with murderous rage, and their burnt, blind companion had its jaws open, eager to exact its revenge. _ENOUGH OF THIS!_ the Great Demon exclaimed. A dull red glow appeared in all three of his mouths, like triple pilot lights, growing brighter and brighter as they all targeted Hiro. The eyes of Sounga's main head narrowed to angry slits as he roared, _BURN IN HELL, DOG-DEMON!_ Then, in perfect unison, Sounga unleashed his full power in a barrage of raw heat and concussive force.

Still hanging onto the Tenseiga, Hiro pulled out the Tetsusaiga as Sounga's attack surged toward him. "You first!" he retorted. "BACKLASH WAVE!" The two opposing forces met in midair, but this time, weakened by his injuries and the lingering effects of Hiro's Dragon Strike, Sounga's attack was far weaker than before. The Backlash Wave sucked up the oncoming fireball , combining its power with Hiro's own, redirecting the blast ...

Straight back into the still-open maw of Sounga's center head.

Sounga's main head jerked back, instinctively snapping his jaws shut on the ball of flame now trapped inside. When he looked back to face Hiromitsu, his crimson eyes were wide in shock, and his reptilian cheeks bulged almost comically as they tried to contain the force of the blast.

In a final moment of crystal clarity, he recalled the words Saeko, the blind seer, had said to him only hours before. "Sooner or later, your own cruelty is going to come right back on your head."

And, in so many ways, it just had; he was about to be destroyed, not just by Hiromitsu, but by his very own attack.

As the fireball in his mouth finally loosed its explosive power within his center head, vaporizing soft tissue, blackening bone, hard-boiling Sounga's once-powerful brain inside his own skull, the Great Demon threw back his main head in one final scream of profound anguish.

_NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!_

And then Sounga was no more.

-----

As Hiromitsu watched, Sounga's middle head exploded in a burst of fire, scorched scales and bone fragments. The Great Demon's last mental howl felt like sharp claws digging into his brain, and Hiro clutched at his throbbing head until the last echoes of it had died away. Meanwhile, the explosion of Sounga's main head started a chain reaction of smaller detonations along the Great Demon's flame-spewing windpipe. While his remaining heads, now cut off from their more intelligent leader, shrieked in pain, terror and utter confusion, the trail of destruction finally reached his main body.

Sounga's chest exploded in a white-hot nova as whatever internal furnace he had used suddenly erupted with the force of a small atomic bomb. In seconds, the blast ripped the Great Demon's gigantic body apart from the inside out. Skin, muscle and organs were vaporized. Sounga's gaudy red scales exploded outward in all directions like shrapnel, now just blackened debris. Even the bones of his enormous skeleton were seared, becoming nothing more than so much charcoal.

As the Great Demon's self-destructing corpse began to fall, Hiromitsu yanked the Tenseiga out of its dead flesh and made his way back toward Sounga's wings, sliding both of his swords into their sheathes as he ran. Just as the explosion reached the spot on which he was standing, Hiro jumped off Sounga's back and grabbed hold of one of the Great Demon's giant wings, hanging from the middle of the leathery appendage. When Sounga's torso exploded, both wings were torn free at the shoulder. Holding on for dear life, Hiromitsu rode the wind on Sounga's dismembered wing, shifting his weight to steer.

As the rest of Sounga's body plummetted to earth, trailing smoke and flame, Hiro soared off like a hang glider, whooping with victory and pure, unfettered adrenaline.

-----

From the ground, Midoriko watched with the other demon-slayers as the dark speck that had been Sounga suddenly erupted in a burst of white light. Immediately, every man, woman and child began cheering, realizing that that flash of light spelled the end of the Great Demon, and the freedom of every being east of the Asian continent.

Only Midoriko could not join them. She realized that, while Sounga's defeat meant freedom and victory, it also meant the end of her best friend in the entire world. Hiromitsu had been her protector, her companion, a big brother to her and the rest of the band of homeless orphans that they had once led through the wilderness. Though she had always known that he was somehow different - that he was faster, stronger and tougher than any human could be - she had always seen him as a person, as someone that she could trust and depend on when she needed him. And now he was gone ...

"Over there!" someone shouted. "Look at that! It must be one of Sounga's wings!" Searching the sky, Midoriko caught sight of the batlike glider coming down. Then she saw the white, man-sized object dangling from it, and Midoriko felt her heart leap in her chest. "Hiromitsu!" While the other villagers cheered, Midoriko pushed through the throng, racing downhill toward where she thought Hiromitsu might come down.

-----

While Hiromitsu might have made a very impressive spectacle flying on a dragon's wing, thirty seconds of holding onto a big, leathery glider that smelled like fried lizard made Hiro want to throw up. As he struggled to keep himself from gliding too far from the village, his flightpath formed a tightening spiral around the site where the rest of Sounga's body had crashed. At long last, Hiro let go about ten feet above the ground. Rolling to absorb the impact of landing, he came to a stop in the middle of a field of smoldering debris.

As Hiromitsu stood, he looked around at what was left of Sounga. The air was filled with foul-smelling ash that fell like black snow. Here and there, he could see large bones that had somehow managed to escape cremation, but even these were charred black from the heat of Sounga's fiery demise. Small burnt scales, like roof tiles, littered the ground. One of Sounga's secondary heads also remained, but every ounce of flesh had been blasted off it, and the blackened skull lay on its side, its long, tooth-lined jaws frozen open.

And there, standing in the center of the ruins like some ornate grave marker, was Sounga's own sword. As it had fallen, the tip of its blade had stuck in the ground. Even now, Hiro could see that the large crystal ball mounted in its pommel still glowed with dark energy, as though some malignant ember of its master's life force were still locked inside. Gritting his teeth, Hiromitsu walked toward toward the weapon.

There was one last thing he needed to take care of.

As he approached, the Great Demon's evil aura was almost palpable. It felt as though he was walking through a thick fog of raw anger and insanity, clouding his thoughts as well as his vision. The sword itself was trying to drive Hiromitsu away. When he finally laid his hands on it, the posessed blade quivered at his touch. Without warning, it leaped up into the air, as though intending to fly away and wreak havoc elsewhere, but Hiro's reflexes were faster. He caught the sword, holding it back.

Hiro bared his teeth. "Nice try, Sounga," he growled, "but now, you're going to free every single soul you've ever sent to the underworld!"

At this, the sword shook in his grasp, but Hiro held on, willing the demon sword to obey him. Finally, its feeble energies exhausted, the sword stilled in his hands, and its crystal ball went dark. Then, as though the crystal had become a portal into some other world, a flood of white light poured out of it. Suddenly, Hiromitsu found himself standing in the midst of a huge multitude of spectral figures: the souls of all the people that Sounga had killed since he had first begun his reign of terror.

Hiro fell back onto his seat, spellbound, as the liberated spirits floated about him, as though dancing to celebrate their long-overdue release.

Then he saw one of the figures approach him, and his face lit up with joy. "Saeko!"

The young woman smiled at Hiromitsu as she came closer, her spectral form rippling like smoke. Suddenly, Hiro noticed another major difference from when he had last seen her: the formerly blind seer's eyes had lost their strange reflective shine, revealing deep, beautiful emerald eyes.

"Hey!" exclaimed Hiro, "You're not blind anymore!"

Saeko nodded. "Actually, I never really was; it was only my physical eyes that couldn't see. I guess that's why I could glimpse the future in my dreams. I was seeing with my inner eyes instead of my outer ones."

"Well, whatever. I'm just glad you're not stuck in the underworld anymore." He gestured to the other spirits, who now seemed to be fading away. "Where are they all going?"

"Where we belong," replied Saeko. "I'd like to see if I can visit Mama and Papa one last time, just to let them know I'm all right." She gave Hiromitsu another one of her warm, beautiful smiles. "Thank you so much, Hiromitsu! You've done more good than you know."

Hiro tried to reach out to embrace Saeko, but his hands passed right through her. Then a thought struck him. "Hey, wait a sec! I've got Sounga's sword now! If you want, I could bring back your body for you, and you and all these other people could be alive again!"

Saeko's smile faded. "No, Hiro," she said. "We don't belong in this world anymore. Every person has to cross over eventually, and that time is here for us."

Saeko looked Hiromitsu straight in the eyes. "Hiro, please be careful with your power. Believe me, I know how tempting it can be to use your gifts for selfish reasons, but if you let it, your power might end up controlling you. That's what made Sounga such a monster; he used his powers to get the things he wanted, not caring what he did to other people in the process.

"Hiro, promise me you'll only use your gifts for good? Not for yourself?"

Hiromitsu answered immediately. "I promise you, Saeko. I'll only use the powers I've been given to help other people." He put a hand to her pale, beautiful face, brushing her cheek. "And I promise I'll always remember you."

Saeko smiled again, bringing her own hand up to - and through - Hiromitsu's. "Thanks, Hiro," she said. "You're a very good friend."

"Same to you, Saeko."

As Hiro brought his hand back, Saeko floated up into the air. "Goodbye!" she called back to him, then soared away on the afternoon breeze, fading away into the distance.

Hiromitsu stood there while the rest of the ghostly figures disappeared, until, at last, he was alone, surrounded by the blackened wreckage that had once been Sounga, a so-called Great Demon, a selfish creature who had wasted his entire life chasing after power.

Then he felt the demon sword in his hand begin to stir once more. Hiro looked down to see the crystal ball in its pommel glowing with dark light, shining like a baleful pink eye. As he looked, it seemed that he could almost see the shape of the future: himself, the sword of Sounga held in his hand, standing before a multitude of devoted followers, a ruler with matchless power, a warrior beyond compare, with strength and ferocity enough to conquer whole worlds...

_All this could be yours..._

_I promise you, Saeko ..._

Hiro shook the image from his head, baring his teeth at the cursed sword. "You think you can make me into a monster like you, Sounga? Well, think again!"

He raised the Sounga high into the air, pointing its tip toward the earth. "You want to rule so much?" he said. "For all I care, you can go rule in Hell!"

Then he threw down the sword with all of his might. Like a hot knife through butter, the demon blade sliced through soil and rock, burying itself so deep in the ground that even Hiro's sharp eyes could no longer see the glow of its infernal power.

Hiro stood over the tiny hole left by the sword's passage, breathing heavily.

_Finally, it's over._

"Hiro!"

Hiromitsu looked toward the sound, and saw Midoriko running out to meet him, her arms open wide. The temptation of Sounga forgotten, Hiro rushed over to his girlfriend, wrapping her in a huge bear hug. As they pulled apart, tears of joy were streaming down both their faces. "Oh, Hiro, you did it! You beat Sounga! You saved everyone!" Midoriko exclaimed.

"Maybe," he said, "but I couldn't have done it on my own." He ran a hand through Midoriko's disheveled hair. "When Sounga was trying to kill me, the only thing that kept me from giving up was thinking of you. You're the reason I'm alive right now, Midoriko."

Hiro took Midoriko in his arms once again, giving her a peck on her forehead. Then Midoriko brought her lips up to his and gave him a long, passionate kiss.

"I love you, Hiromitsu," she said softly.

Hiro closed his eyes and smiled, drinking in Midoriko's warmth and rich, fresh scent. "Yeah, Midoriko" he said, "I love you too."

-----

Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Fight Choreography

The second half of Hiro and Sounga's fight features a major role-reversal. Whereas before, Sounga was the one using more and more and more powerful attacks and forcing Hiromitsu on the defensive, this time, Hiro is the one pushing Sounga's power further and further toward its limit. Once Sounga threatens his friends, Hiromitsu is fighting for more than just his own survival, and so he stops holding back.

When Sounga finally pulls out all the stops, transforming into a giant armored dreadnought, Hiro finds himself outmatched once again ... but this time, he doesn't fold under pressure. Since Sounga is too powerful to confront head-on, Hiro uses his head, chipping away at Sounga until he's weak enough to be beaten with a well-placed Dragon Strike and a Backlash Wave.

-Character Design

Finally, we see Hiromitsu and Sounga in their true forms! Hiro's, of course, isn't much different from how we see him in "Swords of an Honorable Ruler". He's big, he's white, he's fluffy, and he's bigger and stronger than just about anything else.

Sounga's three-headed dragon form is inspired by the three phantom dragon heads that appear when he makes his Dragon Twister attack. He's twenty times bigger than Hiromitsu's dog form, which makes for a "David and Goliath" kind of fight.

-Plot Development

This chapter contains both the climax and denouement (falling action) of the story. The climax comes when Hiro finally destroys Sounga in a fiery explosion. We get closure for Saeko and all of Sounga's other victims when Hiro frees them from the underworld.

Hiro's promise to Saeko - that he will never use his powers for selfish reasons - will, of course, shape much of the rest of the saga, as Hiro struggles to figure out how best to use his unique talents without crossing the line.

And, of course, like any epic hero, Hiromitsu gets the girl in the end. Lucky guy ...

This tenth chapter wraps up the story, while leaving a few loose ends to be dealt with in the next four stories. What's next for Hiromitsu? Will his relationship with Midoriko blossom? How and when do Sesshomaru and Inuyasha come in?

For the answers to these questions - and, of course, four more entertaining action-adventure stories - just keep your eyes open for the next four Tales of the Great Dog-Demon!

And, check out the Epilogue ...

-----


	11. Epilogue

Epilogue

-----

Beneath the light of the crescent moon, campfires blazed. The company of bandits had made camp for the night not far from a fortified village of demon-slayers, in the midst of a field of huge black bones. According to rumor, the remains belonged to Sounga, a Great Demon who had been killed nearly three months earlier. Because of Sounga's reputation, the land was said to be cursed by the monster's disembodied spirit, so none of the locals had bothered them since their arrival.

Shinichiro, leader of the Sons of Kusanagi, took a huge bite from his pork leg. Gathered about him were his chief lieutenants, each one a killer and thief a hundred times over.

"So," one of them said, "what's the plan, Boss?"

Shinichiro let out a loud belch. "Well," he said, "I was thinking we should break camp tomorrow mornin' and head for that little town by the lake. We shouldn't have much trouble from them."

Everyone nodded at this, and the gathering of thieves began to stand, preparing to head for their tents.

_Come to me ..._

Shinichiro cocked his head to one side. "Huh? Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

_Come to me ..._

"That!"

"I don't hear anything," said one of the bandits.

_Come to me ..._

Shinichiro turned toward what seemed to be the source of the "sound". "It's coming from over there!" So saying, he walked out of the tent, heading away from camp and into the bone field.

_Yes ... Come to me, Shinichiro._

"How do you know my name?" the robber-baron inquired of nobody in particular.

_Does it really matter? I know your every desire, Shinichiro ... and it is in my power to grant you those wishes._

Shinichiro picked up his pace. Somehow, the voice seemed so wise, so sincere. He had to find it...

_Come, and I shall grant you power beyond your darkest, wildest dreams ..._

Finally, Shinichiro came to a tiny hole in the ground. Getting down on his knees, he began clawing at the earth with his bare hands.

_Yes, Shinichiro. That's right. Keep going ..._

"Hey, Boss, what're you doing?"

Without pausing his work, Shinichiro looked up at his followers. "Just shut up and help me dig, you idiots! There's something valuable down there!"

After exchanging a few confused glances, the other bandits crouched down and helped their leader with his excavation.

_Yes, that's it! Keep digging!_

Somebody cursed as their fingers hit a sharp rock.

_Keep digging!_

"Hey, Boss, what's down there? What're you looking for?"

_Keep digging!_

"Uh, Boss, are you okay?"

_Faster, you nitwit! I don't have forever!_

Shinichiro snatched at the ground with his torn, bloody fingers, his eyes wide, sweat pouring down his face. He didn't notice the pain in his hands, or the worried looks of his comrades. His eyes saw only the fierce pink light shining up through the tiny shaft. He worked like a man posessed.

Because, in a very real sense, he was.

_Faster!_

_FASTER!_

FASTER!

At long last, they reached a crystal ball stuck in the earth. It was clearly the source of the strange, pink light that they had seen as they dug. The ball was set into a ring of silver metal, which in turn was connected by a leather-wrapped grip leading to an ornate gold disc.

The hilt of a sword...

A crazed look on his face, Shinichiro grabbed the weapon, pulling it out. Its long, elegant blade slid free of the earth with ease, shining dangerously in the moonlight. As if it could sense its freedom, the crystal ball flashed brighter than ever, and Shinichiro heard laughter ...

It was the last thing he would ever hear.

-----

As the other bandits watched, Shinichiro's body stiffened as he held up the strange weapon. Then their leader seemed to relax. Still clutching the sword in his left hand, he stood up, making a sharp cracking sound as he stretched his neck. He looked at the sword, then at the hand that held it, then took in the rest of his body.

"Hmph," he said. "Not much of a body, but better than nothing."

"Uh ... Boss?" one of them asked. "What was all that digging for? What's with that thing?"

Shinichiro scowled, and everyone instinctively backed away from that piercing glare. For some reason, it seemed that Shinichiro's teeth were sharper than usual. Even his eyes seemed to have turned red ...

"This sword is more valuable than you could ever imagine," he snarled. "It is the last remnant of my physical being, and you will address it with respect!"

"Huh? What're you talking about? Boss, are you okay?"

The tall, broad-shouldered man turned to face the one who had just spoken ... and smiled. Somehow, that expression was even more terrifying than the angry grimace he had worn before. As he advanced, everyone else scattered, fleeing that feral, predatory grin and the bright red eyes shining out of it. Only his intended victim remained seated, rooted to his spot by sheer terror.

"B-b-boss ...?" he squeaked. "W-what are you doing?"

Sounga's smile only widened. "Just fixing dinner," he replied, raising his sword over his head as a single, curved horn began growing from the right side of his forehead.

"And your soul will make a fine appetizer ..."

-----

THE END ?

-----


End file.
